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I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



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i UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, t 



THE TRUTH WITH BOLDNESS 



BEING 



STRICTURES ON TWO LECTURES ON PRELACY, 

BY 

THE REV. ROBERT BURNS, D.D., 

MINISTER. OP ST. GEORGE'S, PAISLEY. 



BY D A V I D^A ITCHISON, M. A. OXON, 

PRESBYTER OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND, 
AND ASSISTANT PASTOR OF ST. ANDREW S CHAPEL, GLASGOW. 



n 

1 believe one Catholic and Apostolic Church."— Xicene Cheed. 



GLASGOW: 
THOMAS MURRAY, 8, ARGYLL STREET. 
PAISLEY : — MURRAY & STEWART. 



3Vuno 



J. NEILSON, PIU?)TEB, PAISLEY, 



THE TRUTH WITH BOLDNESS. 



When Pilate interrogated our blessed Lord, "Art thou a king then ? 
Jesus answered, Thou say est that I am a king, to this end was I born." 
In Him were united the prophetic, the sacerdotal, and the kingly offi- 
ces, and as He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, He is now 
as then, when He stood in the presence of Pontius Pilate the governor, 
a prophet, a priest, and a king. He has not resigned his priesthood, 
neither hath He abdicated His throne and crown, but as our great High 
Priest, the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, He has delegated his 
pastoral staff to others, and resigned the government of his dominions 
to stewards, whom He hath been pleased to appoint ; for no man can 
take upon himself the office of the priesthood, but he that is called of 
God, as Aaron was, and no one can act as viceroy, save he to whom 
the King has given authority. Wherefore, saith the Apostle, "Let a 
man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the 
mysteries of God." The word here translated minister, has a very 
significant expression in the original Greek; it means an apparitor, an 
officer, or sergeant of a court of justice, whose duty it is to attend upon 
and obey the orders of the judge — not to act according to his dis- 
cretion, but strictly to obey the commands of his master, to the very 
letter of these commands. He has no business to think of the expedi- 
ency or inexpediency of fulfilling the orders enjoined him to discharge : 
if he oversteps the limits of his commission, he shall suffer for it — if 
he falls short of his commission, he shall equally suffer for it. And 
the word steward means, in the original, one who manages the domes- 
tic or household affairs in a man's house. So St. Paul tells the Co- 
rinthian church, that they ought to account of or esteem him and the 
sacred orders, in the same manner as they esteemed the officers of the 
civil magistrates, and as the stewards who superintended the economy 
of his household, because their offices were similar, though the master 



4 



whom they served was the King of kings, and Lord of lords, the only 
Ruler of princes. And the office he gave them no man could lawfully 
take away: they might be persecuted, they might be put to death by 
rebels such as they who had crucified their Master, but for these things 
God would infallibly judge them. As their office essentially differed 
from and surpassed that held under earthly rulers, so the mode of their 
inauguration into it essentially and peculiarly varied from that of all 
others : so exalted, indeed, w T as their office, that the form employed 
exactly resembled the form of consecration of our blessed Lord. When 
the Holy One of Israel was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended upon 
him in bodily shape, like a dove, and rested upon him : so when our 
Lord had risen from the dead, he said to the Apostles, " Peace be unto 
you, as (or in the same manner as) my Father hath sent me, even so 
send 1 you ;" and when he had said this, he breathed upon them, and 
saith unto them, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whosesoeversins ye remit, 
they are remitted, and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." 
And again, on the day of Pentecost, were they fully and visibly or- 
dained to the apostolic office; for "there appeared unto them cloven 
tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all 
filled with the Holy Ghost." Such were the awful and extraordinary 
solemnities attendant upon the consecration of the ministers of Christ, 
and the stewards of the mysteries of God; and glorious as were the 
outward and visible signs of their consecration, still more glorious was 
that internal and spiritual shekinah which filled and illuminated 
the souls of the Apostles, converting those fishermen of Galilee, those 
vessels of earth, into holy and living temples of the Spirit of God. In 
anticipation of this hallowed rite, thus on earth the Son addressed his 
Father in heaven : — " Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is 
truth; as thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent 
them into the world ; and for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they 
also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for them 
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, 
that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, 
that they also may be one in us : that the world may believe that thou 
hast sent me, and the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, 
that they may be one even as we are one." flow great, then, must 
be the apostleship which was clothed with the heavenly glory of the 
Son of God himself! Yet, with all this, were they men of like 
passions with ourselves, but the Lord was with them, and his arm it 
sustained them. This glory here supplicated, and afterwards confer- 
red, was not bestowed upon the Apostles as a gift not to be transferred 



5 



to others; it was one of the mysteries of which they were the stew- 
ards, and to be by them, as need required, imparted to their fellow 
stewards in the kingdom of God. " Wherefore/' saith St. Paul to Ti- 
mothy, "I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God 
which is in thee, by the laying on of my hands." This gift of God — 
as every Greek scholar knows — was bestowed by St. Paul's hands, not 
by the hands of a number of co-equal presbyters ; for the Greek word 
(ffgwjSvttgw*), translated presbytery, 1 Tim. iv. 14, is a noun sin- 
gular, signifying an office — not a noun plural, signifying a number of 
presbyters (which would have been ^trfiurt^ut) . And that one 
person, and not several, was hereafter to be the ordainer, is clear from 
St. Paul's directions to Timothy, " Lay thou hands suddenly on no 
man ;" and again, " The things that thou hast heard of me among 
many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be 
able to teach others also." And to Titus the same Apostle writes, 
" For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldst set in order the 
things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city." From these 
two instances, there cannot be a doubt in the minds of unprejudiced 
persons, that to Timothy and Titus the Apostles, as we would now call 
them the bishops of Ephesus and Crete, the sole and exclusive power 
of ordination belonged. The faculty of ordaining is not bestowed 
upon a college of presbyters, dwelling in Ephesus or Crete, but on 
Timothy and Titus, on whom St. Paul had conferred authority over 
all in their respective seats of government, whether presbyters or laity, 
and jurisdiction also; for Timothy is commanded " not to rebuke ars 
elder person, but to entreat him as a father, and the younger men as 
brethren ; and against a presbyter or priest not to receive an accusa- 
tion, but before two or three witnesses." If this does not afford a pre- 
cedent for episcopal jurisdiction, I know not what can. Here is au- 
thority to ordain, and authority to rule, " to rebuke them that sin be- 
fore all, that others also may fear," delegated to no presbytery of 
Ephesus, to no moderator and his co-equal presbyters, but to one 
whom the Church calls a bishop : nor was this jurisdiction singular, 
nor local, nor extraordinary, as we learn from the account of the seven 
churches of Asia, in the book of Revelation. Each of these cele- 
brated churches, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Phi- 
ladelphia, Laodicea, was governed by an individual ruler, called an 
angel, and also a star in the right hand of God ; and the churches were 
also called golden candlesticks, in the midst of which one like unto the 
Son of man was seen. Let us examine a little the message delivered 
to these angels, and see whether there is any correspondence with that 



6 



delivered to Timothy. I shall begin with that to the angel of the 
Church of Ephesus, " I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy 
patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil ; and 
thou hast tried them, (or examined the pretensions of them,) which 
say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars and 
again, " Unto the angel of the Church of Thyatira write, These things 
saith the Son of God, I know thy works, and charity, and service, and 
faith, and thy patience, and thy works, and the last to be more than the 
first; notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou 
sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to 
teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat 
things sacrificed unto idols." "And to the angel of the Church of 
Philadelphia write, I know thy works ; behold, I have set before 
thee an open door, and no man can shut it : for thou hast a little 
strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Be- 
hold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say 
they are Jews, and are not, but do lie : behold, I will make them to 
come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved 
thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will 
keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the 
world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." From these messages, 
delivered by direct revelation from heaven to St. John, and to be by 
him communicated to the angels whom God had set over his household 
the church, to give them meat in due season, we learn, from language 
as clear as can be written, the awful responsibility of those who are 
ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God, and these 
messages, too, delivered with a " He that hath an ear to hear, let him 
hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches." We learn also, that 
the angels were the custodiers of the faith in those several cities ; that 
they were not to suffer heretics to seduce God's people by their false 
teaching, but to rebuke them. Now, let us consider the temporal 
position of those angels. It was in the year A, D. 96. Were the 
cities christian? No; they were heathen, and the Christians few in 
number, and as lambs in the midst of wolves, The governor, there can 
be little doubt, was a heathen, as was the emperor, and persecutors of 
the followers of the Cross. There was no civil court before which the 
angels could drag their refractory sheep, the teachers of heresy, for 
punishment, yet did God find fault with the angel of Thyatira, because 
he suffered the woman Jezebel, which called herself a prophetess, to 
teach and to seduce His servants, and this, too, when God knew that 
the angel had no apparent power to prevent her. The temporal sword 



7 



was not in his hands, neither could he command it, for he was him- 
self, in the eye of the law and the magistrate, a heretic, and counted 
worthy of death, because he worshipped not the idol gods whom the 
State worshipped. But he had a sword, the sword of the Spirit, the 
sword of anathema. He might, as St. Paul did, have delivered such an 
one over unto Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might 
be saved in the day of the Lord — he might have excommunicated the 
heretic prophetess, have bound her sins on earth, and they would have 
been bound in heaven, and God would have inflicted whatever pun- 
ishment he thought meet. All this, according to modern theory, laxi- 
ty, liberalism, and disobedience, would be very bigoted, very tyrannical, 
very inexpedient, and the most certain method possible to drive people 
from the Church, and to prevent the people from embracing a religion so 
rigid and illiberal that no one might have liberty to set np a new sect, 
or open a new conventicle, without being amenable to excommunica- 
tion : such, doubtless, would be the opinion of what is called a liberal 
and enlightened age. Nevertheless did Almighty God threaten to 
remove those angels' candlesticks, except they repented, and exercised 
stricter discipline ; that is, he would root out every vestige of Christiani- 
ty, destroying all the houses of God in the land, and again plunge in 
the darkness of heathenism cities which once rejoiced in the light of 
gospel revelation. And He did so. Of those once famous cities of Asia 
scarcely any vestiges remain, and in the crumbling foundations of once 
consecrated churches the pilgrim may read, as he passes by, the Mene, 
Mene, Tekel; God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it ; thou 
art weighed in the balance, and found wanting. This removal of those 
candlesticks or churches out of their places was the punishment inflict- 
ed by Heaven on account of the lukewarmness, and the negligence, 
and the defections from the faith of the rulers whom God, and not man, 
had set over His Church. God smote the shepherds, and the sheep 
were scattered. God hath indeed visited the sins of the fathers upon 
the children, unto more than the third and fourth generation. Does 
this death-like desolation, which hath swept over the rich and 
splendid cities of Asia, teach us no warning ? Does the sterile 
sand wreath, shrowding alike the ashes of the Christian and the 
heathen, teach us no warning? Does the melancholy wailing 
of the tempest, as it howls through each ruined arch, and each 
flowery sculptured capital of the pillars of the Lord's houses, stir 
no responsive echo in our own bosoms, and excite no fear lest the 
vials of divine wrath should be upon our land also poured out ? 
It has been so, brethren. God did remove the angels which once ruled 



8 



the Churches of Scotland, and He suffered John Knox to destroy 
many of the houses of God, and to break down the carved work 
thereof with axes and hammers. For the sins of the angels and of the 
people, surely He suffered this abomination of desolation. 

The Church was utterly corrupt, and God was pleased to visit this 
country with sore affliction. In His goodness, however, He sent 
from England other angels, successors of the Apostles also, teachers 
not of error, but of the truth as it is in Jesus. But the land was 
defiled with blood, and wickedness was great in this country, and 
it again pleased Him who holdeth the stars in His right hand, 
to remove the angels out of their places in the year 1638. When 
the nobles and gentry heard that King Charles would make them 
restore the Church's property, which they had sacrilegiously seized, 
they bound themselves by a covenant to rebel against God's 
angels ; they accused them of every crime almost that man can 
commit, and, by the help of their retainers, and some clergy who were 
bound by vows of canonical obedience to those their angels, they thrust 
out their bishops by violence. Thus far, and no farther, did God suf- 
fer wicked men to prevail, and though no longer possessed of their 
temporalities, the angels and clergy are still spiritually established in 
Scotland, and if they continue faithful, (for it is required of a steward 
that a man be found faithful,) God will restore them, and bring back 
into His fold those who have erred and strayed, like lost sheep, that 
there may be one fold under one shepherd, and that the Church may 
be catholic in number, as it now is in faith, and that all the people may 
obey them to whom God hath given the rule over them, and submit 
themselves; for he has appointed them to watch for their souls, as they 
that must give account. This, of course, must be expected of bishops 
now, if they be successors of the Apostles, successors of those who, 
in the book of Revelation, are called angels. It was not then, any 
more than now, a decree of the Emperor, or a law of the state, which 
ordained the angels to rule over the churches in Asia, and enjoined 
all, even Dissenters, to render them obedience : it was the Divine and 
only Supreme Spiritual Head of the Church who did so. And we are 
nowhere told in Scripture that the office of angel was extraordinary, 
and hath now ceased; on the contrary, the Apostle was commanded, 
" Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and 
the things which shall be hereafter!' x\nd the Spirit windeth up the 
Revelation with this tremendous announcement : — " For I testify unto 
every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any 
man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues 



9 



that are written in this book : and if any man shall take away from 
the words of the prophecy of this book, God shall take away his part 
out of the book of life, and out of the ho\y city, and from the things 
which are written in this book." 

Men may deny my position that bishops now are representatives 
of the angels, but those angels were none of the Apostles, for they 
were addressed by St. John, the last of the Apostles, all the others 
having obtained their crowns of martyrdom. They were, at all events, 
successors of the Apostles, and were divinely appointed rulers of the 
Church, and should not be removed, except for the sin of unfaithfulness : 
so we may be certain that God designed them to have successors, and 
though the monitions were directed to seven angels of seven notable 
cities of Asia Minor, yet were they revealed for the good of all christian 
churches. Nor have we any reason to believe (and history tells us 
the contrary) that the government of the churches of Christ differed 
from that of the apocalyptic churches. So, then, except the gates of 
hell have universally prevailed against the Church of Christ, there must 
exist successors of the angels, by whatever name they may be called. 
If it should be argued, from the entire removal of all the bishops in J ohn 
Knox's time, that he was raised up by God entirely to abolish that system, 
in order to establish their supposition it must also be believed that God, 
who had raised him to pull down, had also ordained him to set up 
another, and a better, and a more desirable system in its stead, and that 
against this nothing should prevail. 

But what did happen ? He set up men called superintendents, 
without any ordination, by laying on of hands ; for the First Book 
of Discipline tells us, that it was held to be a superstition and unneces- 
sary. Now, these superintendents were soon superseded by arch- 
bishops and bishops ; yet, having no ordination, they were only laymen, 
and then those titular prelates quickly yielded to the presbyterian 
system imported by Andrew Melville from Geneva. So, judging from 
the annihilation of Knox's polity, I am led to question his divine 
mission as a reformer, but not to doubt that he was a national scourge 
for the sins of the clergy and people ; for, as the government of the 
Church is altogether in the hands of God, nothing but the sins of the 
angels could have produced their overthrow. There is raised against 
what we call the church party a very clamorous outcry. We are 
called papists, bigots, and all sorts of names; and wherefore? Be- 
cause we hold that God hath established his Church upon earth. We 
are called Erastians ; and wherefore ? Because it is said we hold that 
the sovereign is head of the Church. For this w r e thank our adver- 

B 



10 



saries. We do indeed hold that in all temporal jurisdiction the 
sovereign, being, as St. Paul says, a minister of God, is Supreme Head 
of the Church — that is, of the whole body of believers; but that in 
things spiritual our Lord Jesus Christ is the Head, and the clergy his 
vicars and representatives on earth, whom he hath appointed as his 
ministers and stewards. If, therefore, the Church has but one Head, 
that is, Christ, and if he, being absent in the body, has ordained certain 
officers to discharge the functions in His kingdom — namely, administering 
the sacraments, and preaching the gospel to the people — it is very evi- 
dent that no men, be they kings, nobles, clergy, or people, can, with- 
out sin, resist those officers, and if they do so, they are the Erasti- 
ans. It cannot be denied that in Scotland Presbyterianism originated 
with Andrew Melville ; that he introduced it in opposition to the then 
Episcopacy, falsely so called ; that, upon the principle of might mak- 
ing right, he had such supreme authority as to carry his point, and es- 
tablish his system. Presbyterianism, therefore, proceeding from human 
power, whether in the hands of the sovereign or of the people, was an 
Erastian system, because not divine. If John Knox was a divinely 
appointed reformer, then his system of superintendents must also have 
been divine ; but if Melville, then his presbyterian system. Both could 
not be right, for the one was directly opposed to the other. And again, 
if Knox was a divinely appointed reformer, then his Book of Discipline 
must also have been composed in accordance with the mind of the Holy 
Spirit, and whatever was therein written could not beset aside and dis- 
obeyed without sin : but it has been set aside, and some of its doctrines 
annulled, by the Westminster Confession of Faith. Those divines, there- 
fore, who drew up that Confession, could not have esteemed Knox as a 
reformer sent by God ; if so, why did they annul his scheme of Church 
polity? Was not this to fight against God? Seeing then, brethren; the 
contrariety of those so styled reformers, it would well become Chris- 
tians in Scotland to consider whether they are Knoxites or Melvillites. 
For if Knox was a reformer whom God had commissioned, then must 
his polity of superintendents be also of God, and therefore all people 
bound to follow it ; and if Melville was the heaven-appointed reformer, 
then his presbyterian model is the right one. Supposing, then, that 
the Melville system was of divine appointment — that is, that God had 
raised up Andrew Melville to remodel the Church, and to restore its 
government to what it originally was, viz. Presbyterian, and not Epis- 
copal — what then ? seeing that before the days of Calvin and Mel- 
ville, above 1500 years, Episcopacy had universally prevailed. But, 
supposing that Presbyterianism, or Calvin's and Melville's system, was 



11 



of divine original, then, this having throughout all the world been sup- 
planted by man's system of Episcopacy, it is clear that the gates ol 
hell had prevailed against the Church of Christ — that what the God 
Christ had established, man had from the beginning overthrown. And 
does this accord with the promise made to the Apostles, " Lo, T am 
with you always, even unto the end of the world?" I trow not. 
If the angels have successors (and it cannot be proved that they have 
not,) then, by whatever name designated — whether bishops, moderators, 
or ministers — it is most certain, it cannot admit of a doubt, that their suc- 
cessors possess in the Church of Christ the same authority, jurisdiction, 
and power which the first of that name possessed. It matters not to 
cavil about a name. We call them bishops, others call them presbyters. 
Be it so. A knife is still an instrument for cutting, whether one calls it 
a knife, or another calls it a hatchet. If, then, it be admitted — and 
how can it be denied ? — that the angels have successors, then is it the 
bounden duty of all Christians to ascertain which are the successors of 
the angels, if God declared the angels to be supreme in jurisdiction 
in the cities where they were planted — supreme over the Church, and 
supreme over heretics who had gone out from the Church — it is most 
manifest that their successors must be equally supreme. But this is 
not a recognised principle now by the many, though it is so by well 
instructed Churchmen. If the system of Knox was divine, how great 
the sin of Melville to overthrow it. and of the present Establishment to 
approve of that overthrow ! If the system of Melville was divine, how 
wicked of James to supplant it by Episcopacy ! But, as both were sup- 
planted, it becomes us to examine which system was divine, and whose 
ministers were the successors of the angels. 

This inquiry brings us to the doctrine of the apostolic successicn. 
The superintendents of Knox were appointed by the people, without 
any ordination by the laying on of hands. The present presbyterian 
ministers have ordination by laying on of hands, and for this they can 
claim no higher succession than Melville, a man of the 16th century. 
Bishops have also ordination by laying on of hands, and from whom 
have the present Scottish bishops derived their ordination ? From Au- 
gustine, archbishop of Canterbury, through the Anglican bishops. And 
from whom had Augustine his ordination ? From Etherius, archbishop 
of Aries, and he from Irenaeus, the disciple of Poly carp, who was the 
bishop of Smyrna, and a disciple of St. John. Augustine, no doubt, 
received ordination as a presbyter at Rome, and therefore was spirit- 
ually descended from St. Peter and St. Paul ; and that of a bishop from 
Gaul, and, therefore, was also spiritually descended from St. John. 



12 



So by succession, through the laying on of hands, the spiritual descent 
of the Scottish bishops is from the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
The doctrine of succession by ordination is maintained by the present 
Scottish Establishment. "No man/' saith the Westminster Confession of 
Faith, " ought to take upon him the office of a minister of the word, 
without a lawful calling. Ordination is always to be continued in 
the Church. Every minister of the word is to be ordained by imposi- 
tion of hands and prayer, with fasting, by those preaching presbyters 
to whom it doth belong." The expression, " always to be continued in 
the Church" is a clear acknowledgment of the doctrine of succession ; 
and, as we cannot suppose that the Westminster authors of the Con- 
fession imagined the Church to commence at the Reformation, we must 
conclude that they recognised the succession from the Apostles, or, in 
other words, the apostolic succession. And who are those preaching 
presbyters to whom it doth lawfully belong to ordain ? Unquestion- 
ably none but those who have themselves received power to ordain. 
And did Melville receive power to ordain ? No; for in his day ordi- 
nation by laying on of hands did not prevail, because esteemed an un- 
necessary superstition. So the Westminster Confession lays the axe 
at the root of presbyterian ministers' ordination, and unchurches the 
very body to which it prescribes rules of doctrine and discipline. So, 
whatever might have been the intention of the Westminster Assembly, 
and of the present Establishment preachers, it is clear that the Con- 
fession itself recognises only, as the ministers of Christ and stewards 
of the mysteries of God, bishops who have always had ordination, and 
to whom it always has lawfully belonged to ordain, the power to do 
so having from the beginning been intrusted to them, and by every 
canon of the universal church withheld from presbyters. I say 
not here, whether or not this was right, but so it has ever been. So, 
if lawfulness in ordination has any weight, ordinations can only be 
valid and legal which are celebrated according to the will of Him who 
made the law, and He was Christ, for He said to the Apostles, "As my 
Father hath sent me, even so send I you." Let not, then, any presbyte- 
rian minister accuse us of bigotry, if we stoutly maintain the apostolic 
succession to be essential to the christian priesthood; for it is the doctrine, 
as it appears to me, of the standard of their faith. And this I shall be- 
lieve, till I see some well-grounded argument to the contrary; and if 
they do deny it, then they unchurch themselves, proving that they are 
not ministers of Christ, but ministers of men, self-appointed, self- 
ordained. As, according to the Second Book of Discipline, as well as the 
Westminster Confession, .the presbyterian model was declared to be 



13 



scriptural, and laying on of hands in ordination essential, they who 
now exercise the power of ordination in the Scottish Establishment are 
called upon to show from what source that power has been derived to 
them ; for, as St. Paul says, " no man taketh the honour of the priest- 
hood unto himself, but he that is called of God, as Aaron was." So 
ought they also to be able to prove that they have their ordination 
by succession from some who had authority in the Church to send men 
into the Lord's vineyard — who they were when Presbyterianism was 
first set up in Scotland, in Melville's time, who ordained by the lay- 
ing on of hands. The bishops whom this system deposed were not in 
holy orders, none of them having been consecrated, except Gordon, 
bishop of Galloway ; and he, as an ordinary minister, having conform- 
ed to the new regimen, and dropped his episcopal title, was set aside, 
and not suffered to discharge any ministerial functions. As the then 
hierarchy was titular merely, and unordained, it is clear that they 
could not transmit to others a power which they had not themselves. 
Whence, then, the orders of Melville and his contemporaries ? Had 
they reckoned essential the principle of succession, they would have 
availed themselves of the services of Bishop Gordon, and procured from 
him a lawful ordination. In this case, all the presbyterian ministers 
of that day, though without the title, might have had the power of 
bishop, (for the name is of no moment, but the power,) and therefore, 
by laying on of hands, have propagated the apostolic seed. But, as 
this was not done, the conclusion appears to me unavoidable, that the 
party who, in 1580, abolished episcopal government by an Act of As- 
sembly that year, and set up Presbyterianism in its stead, comes under 
the ban of the Westminster Confession, which declares that no man 
ought to take upon him the office of a minister of the word, without 
a lawful calling. Most gladly should I learn that they have a lawful 
calling. The ministers met in the Assembly of 1580 were lawfully 
under the government of the bishops, and bound to obey them ; but 
they rose in rebellion against their superiors, wrested the powder from 
their hands, and assumed it themselves. How then can it be said that 
they had a lawful authority to ordain ? And if not, those whom they 
ordained would not be lawful ministers ; neither can their successors of 
the present day. This is a subject which certainly requires to be in- 
vestigated and opened up, that people may know whether they have 
a lawful ministry, and whether the ministerial acts, such as the admin- 
istration of the sacraments, be lawful. 

In the case of the seven Strathbogie ministers now in rebellion 
against the decrees of the General Assembly, but in obedience to the 



14 



civil power, it has been declared, upon the authority of the majo- 
rity of the Assembly, that their acts are null and void — that no grace 
in the sacraments is conferred by them, because they resist the autho- 
rity of their spiritual superiors. And if this doctrine hold good in their 
case, so must it also in the instance of that Assembly which set at 
naught and resisted the authority of their superiors. So also of the 
acts of the General x\ssembly of 1638, and this further confirmed by 
the violent proceedings of ]690. And, therefore, the present majority 
of the Commission and General Assembly, according to their present 
principles, nullify all baptisms ever administered by presbyterian min- 
isters, because their own orders became vitiated by their too successful 
rebellion. The fact of the seven ministers of Strathbogie being in a 
minority does not afreet the argument; which is, that their resistance to 
their superiors deletes their clerical character, and, consequently, re- 
duces their acts to the mere outward si™, deficient of internal "race. 
It has been said of old that the Holy Spirit is given only in the Ca- 
tholic Church. How remarkable is the approximation to this doctrine 
in. the principles set forth in the epistle addressed by authority to the 
flocks of the seven ministers; and how strange is it that they who thus 
wrote did not perceive that they had published an instrument condem- 
natory of themselves and their predecessors in the ministry ! Suppose 
that, instead of seven ministers, all the parish ministers in Scotland and 
their elders, not members of the Assembly, made light of the decree of 
the Assembly, and refused to receive it, would not they defy the autho- 
rity of the Assembly as much as the seven now do? And would not their 
ministerial acts be null and void, as well as those of the seven ministers, 
and, therefore, all whom they baptized not be spiritually baptized — 
not regenerate, but sprinkled with water merely ? Most assuredly they 
would, according to the doctrine of that letter. And, by a parity of rea- 
soning, as the majority or supposed majority of the ministers in 1638 
defied the authority of the bishops, who, by law ecclesiastical and civil, 
held chief rule in the Church, then the ministerial acts of that majority 
must also be invalid. Here, then, is another instance wherein the pre- 
sent established ministers unchurch themselves. But, to proceed to the 
doctrine of the apostolic succession, which is now charged upon us as 
being popish, Anderson, in his defence of presbyterian government, 
chap. 2, sec. 5, p. 90, says, " The church of Rome, a society of a very 
large extent, of a very long standing, and such as has produced not a 
few wise and great men, expressly contradict it, denying that any of the 
Apostles had successors, save Peter in the papal chair." This minister, 
then, exculpates us from the charge of being popish, on the score of hold- 



15 



ing the doctrine of the apostolic succession, and he is right, for it is a 
doctrine which was most strenuously opposed in the Council of Trent, 
by the Popish Legates. And why ? Because it was an anti-papal 
doctrine. By the doctrine of the apostolic succession we understand 
that every bishop is a successor of the Apostles, and as all the Apostles 
were of equal rank and authority, so must all their successors be ; and this 
was a doctrine too adverse to the bishop of Rome's pretensions to an uni- 
versal Episcopate, to receive the sanction of his Legates at that Council. 
Accordingly, Father Paul, in his history of that Council, says, lib. vii., 
anno 1562, " When the archbishop of Grenada, and other Spanish pre- 
lates, maintained that all bishops were ordained by Christ, and there- 
fore de jure divino, the papal party opposed this proposition, declaring 
that their authority was derived from the Pope, and therefore de jure 
pontificio, and partly by numbers, and partly by finesse, stifled the 
discussion — justly fearing, that, if it had been persisted in, the inde- 
pendence of all bishops might have been established, and the power of 
the papal sovereignty overthrown." The discussion of this most im- 
portant subject at the Council of Trent, is most interesting, and well 
merits being read, especially the speech of the archbishop of Grenada, 
who quotes St. Cyprian's epistles to several bishops of Rome, wherein 
he addresses them as colleagues, not as superiors and supreme rulers 
of the Catholic Church. I am really at a loss to discover what reason- 
able objection can be urged against this doctrine. I know it is argued 
that the apostolic was an extraordinary office, because it was graced by 
the gift of miracles, which bishops do not possess. But this is no ar- 
gument. Because our blessed Lord said (St. Mark xvi, 17), that " mi- 
racles should follow baptized persons who believed," so from this it 
may also be argued that there are no believers now, because no work- 
ers of miracles. Besides, the gift of miracles in the apostolic age was 
not confined to the Apostles. Moreover, the commission given by our 
Lord to his apostles was of no extraordinary character. "Go and 
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Fa- 
ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe 
all things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and, lo, I am with you 
al way, even unto the end of thew T orld" — Matt.xxviii.19,20. This com- 
mission surely is common to every christian minister, and its perpe- 
tuity or succession is distinctly declared. I do not choose to cite, as 
I might do, the authority of the many early Fathers on this subject, 
because the evidence of the Holy Scriptures appears to me sufficient, 
as well as the reason of it. The reasonableness of the thing is so ap- 
parent, that it is marvellous how any objection could ever have been 



16 



raised against it, except from sinister motives. What is more easy to 
be understood, than that the Apostles whom our Lord had appointed 
to preach the gospel and administer the sacraments, should, knowing 
they could not always abide with theChurch, appoint their successors; 
and that they in like manner should do the same, and thus a succes- 
sion of such men should ever continue in the Church ? And what more 
simple than the rite by which those successors were set aside for the 
work of the ministry, viz., by fasting, prayer, and laying on of hands? 
But against these cavils now are raised, and yet is a similar succes- 
sion in civil offices constantly kept up, though by a different form. No 
man presumes to act as a magistrate, without a commission from the 
sovereign, or other constituted authority ; and why should a minister 
of Christ, and steward of the mysteries of God? I have been some- 
what diffuse on the subject of the apostolic succession ; not because its 
difficulties require much labour to establish it, but because of late it 
has been more mystified than need required, and it seems somewhat 
Quixotic in contending with shadows. 

I pass on now to a very grave matter, not so much of argu- 
ment as of fact, viz., the doctrinal differences of the Scottish Estab- 
lishment and the Church in Scotland. And in this forbearance is a sin, 
because we are constantly assured both by the Gallios, who care for 
none of these things, and by well-disposed chough uninformed persons, 
that these differences are not important. That they are essential is known 
to every one who is conversant with the standards of faith professed and 
believed by both ; and this I shall show from books of easy access to 
all parties — the Book of Common Prayer, and the Westminster Con- 
fession of Faith — and shall test both by the Word of God. The Con- 
fession of Faith says, chap. iii. sec. 6 — " Neither are any other re- 
deemed by Christ, but the elect only." Church Catechism — " I v be- 
lieve in God the Son, who hath redeemed me and all mankind." 
1 Tim. ii. 5, 6 — "For there is one God, and one Mediator between 
God and men, the man Christ Jesus ; who gave himself a ransom for 
all." To redeem and to give a ransom for all men, surely mean the 
same thing. Confession, chap. xxix. sect. 2 — " Christ's one only sa- 
crifice, the alone propitiation for all the sins of the elect." Commu- 
nion Office, prayer of consecration, the sacrifice of Christ is called " a 
full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation^, and satisfaction for the 
sins of the whole world." 1 John ii. 1, 2 — "We have an advocate 
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitia- 
tion for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the 
whole world" Conf. chap. x. sec. 3— u Elect infants dying in in- 



17 



fancy, are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who 
worketh when, and where, and how he pleaseth. So also are all 
other elect persons, who are incapable of being outwardly called by 
the ministry of the word." I may not properly understand this latter 
sentence, but it certainly appears to me, that of the number " incapa- 
ble of being outwardly called," are those whose habitation in the midst 
of a heathen country renders them inaccessible to hearing the gospel 
preached, and consequently are without faith in the blood of Christ, 
which cleanseth from all sin. Without prying into the mystery of pre- 
destination, the impression made upon my mind by it is, that if any 
individuals dwelling in the heart of a heathen country are to be 
saved by a decree made before the foundations of the world were laid, 
they owe their salvation, not to any faith in the atonement, but to that 
decree. And as salvation is thereby insured to them, I cannot compre- 
hend in what degree preaching of the gospel can profit such persons, 
seeing they are in no danger without it. And if this be so with people 
now, it must also have been the same with those of preceding genera- 
tions. And the natural query which suggests itself is, Wherefore the 
necessity of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, either now or hereto- 
fore ? For, by the hearing of it, the salvation of the elect cannot be 
rendered more certain, neither can the damnation of the non-elect be 
averted. Indeed, the doctrine contained in this chapter, as it now 
stands, and being also consistent with that in the 3d chapter, " of God's 
eternal decree," has, to use a qualified expression, a strong tendency to 
lower, if not to set aside, the efficacy of Christ's atonement. It may 
possibly be explained away by subtle reasoning, but by the ordinary 
and single-minded reader this is likely to be the interpretation put 
upon it. I have brought forward these doctrines from the Book of 
Common Prayer and the Confession of Faith, to satisfy those who are 
in the habit of saying that the existing differences between the Scot- 
tish Establishment and the Church, are in forms of church government 
only, and not in matters doctrinal, while they are differences most es- 
sential ; and that of " church government," as it is called, and what 
many people talk lightly of, is in fact a doctrine fundamental, and af- 
fecting the vitality of any society designated a church, or the church of 
Christ, for on the lawfulness of this government depends the lawfulness 
of the sacraments. This principle is clearly laid down in the Confession, 
c. xxvii. s. 4 — " There be only two sacraments ordained by Christ our 
Lord in the gospel, that is to say, baptism and the supper of the Lord; 
neither of which may be dispensed by any but a minister of the word 
lawfully ordained." And so says also the Church of England, Article 

c 



23. "It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public 
preaching, or ministering the sacraments in the congregation, before he 
be lawfully called, and sent to execute the same.'"' In both these 
articles the doctrine of succession is clearly recognised, as essen- 
tial to the lawfulness of sacerdotal ministrations, and the conclu- 
sion is inevitable that from our Lord Jesus Christ this succession 
through the Apostles must be derived. This beins; the case, and both 
the Westminster Confession and the Church of England being agreed 
upon the doctrine, the only point at issue is the lawfulness of the 
ordination of Melville and his contemporary ministers, from whom 
the presbyterian form of government originated. And as it is notorious 
that they, in the Assembly at Dundee in 1580, deposed the bishops, 
threatening them with excommunication, except they demitted their 
office, and from the weakness of the king and his government, this 
rebellion against the constituted authorities of the eccles i as tic s. 1 polity 
was suffered to prevail, — surely, then, the censures passed upon the 
ministers of Strathbogie, that " they have, in their present condition, 
no spiritual authority — no right to administer the ordinances of the 
gospel,*' come with a bad grace from the successors of men who 
rebelled against their bishops in 1580. I most heartily coincide with 
one clause of the Act of 1580. " The office of a bishop, as it is now 
used and commonly taken within this realm, has no sure warrant, 
authority, or good ground, out of the Scriptures of God, but is brought 
in by the folly and corruption of man's invention, to the great over- 
throw of the Church of God." All this is most true, for those bishops 
themselves were not consecrated, and, therefore, not lawful bishops; 
for such bishops there is indeed " no sure warrant out of the Scriptures 
of God." Should this fact be pleaded in palliation of the violent and 
unlawful proceedings of that Assembly, let us turn to a later period in 
the history of this unhappy and misguided country, and see if in the 
transactions which marked the year 1638 we can discover the letters 
of orders of the fathers of this present Establishment. The cause, as I 
have before observed, which led to the war against the angels of the 
Church of Christ, (and they were truly such by their English conse- 
cration, and not fictitious prelates,) was the pious intention of Charles 
I. to restore to the bishops some of the property sacrilegiously robbed 
from them. Whence arose that armed and rebel association called the 
Tables, composed of nobility, gentlemen, ministers, and burgesses, 
from whom emanated the Solemn League and Covenant, a document 
surreptitiously substituted in the place of a confession of faith put 
forth in the reign of James VI., being an abjuration of many of the 



19 



popish doctrines, signed by the king, and under this title they sub- 
mitted the new covenant for the people's subscription and acceptance? 
By the machinations of this unlawful association, which had its boards 
or sub-committees in the provinces, an Assembly was convened at Glas- 
gow in November, 1638, packed with men prepared to run to any 
extremes of violence, both against the bishops and the king ; and of 
this number there were, contrary to constituted usages, lay elders joined 
with the ministers. The first effort of the leaders of the faction was to 
procure from his Majesty's Commissioner, the Marquis of Hamilton, 
a warrant to cite the bishops before the xAssernbly to answer any 
charges that might be brought against them. Having failed in this, 
they then directed a proclamation to be read in all the churches of 
Edinburgh, and throughout all the parish churches in the country, ac- 
cusing the whole of the bishops of " heresy, simony, perjury, incest, 
adultery, fornication, sabbath-breakiug, Arminianism, popery, and card- 
playing." In vain did the Commissioner remonstrate against this un- 
heard of atrocity. The clergy, partly through intimidation, and partly 
through inclination, complied with this unholy and unchristian mandate, 
and on the Lord's day, and in the house of God — where the professors 
of the christian faith were assembled to confess their sins to Almighty 
God, to beseech pardon for the past and grace for the future — did men, 
called ministers of Christ, bound, too, by their ordiuation oaths to obey 
their bishops, openly, in the sight of God and man, charge, without 
proof and without trial, all their spiritual rulers with this black catalogue 
of the foulest crimes. No wonder then that men, thus steeped in 
guilt and crime, should afterwards cast out of the Lord's heritage the 
stewards whom He had appointed to give them their meat in due season, 
break into open rebellion against their anointed sovereign, and at last 
sell him to his enemies and murderers. And all this wickedness and 
iniquity was perpetrated under the pretext of religion. 

Is it from this polluted source, this lawless assembly, that the minis- 
ters of the present Establishment derive their " lawful calling to ad- 
minister the sacraments ordained by Christ our Lord in the gospel?" 
No wonder that they abhor the doctrine of the apostolic succession, 
seeing how much their worthy ancestors in the ministry slandered and 
defied those who were in truth successors of the Apostles, the angels of 
the Church in Scotland. Can it be said of those men, that the same 
mind was in them as was in Christ Jesus ? Can it be said that the Holy 
Spirit presided in their councils, among whose fruits were " hatred, 
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, mur- 
ders, and such like "—and not "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle- 



20 



ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance ?" The command of the 
inspired apostle is, " Against an elder receive not an accusation, but 
before two or three witnesses," but in this present instance this com- 
mand was violated, and, oh nefas, the very elders themselves condemned, 
unheard and untried, the very order of the priesthood which the Holy 
Ghost had made overseers to feed the Church of God, which He had 
purchased with his own blood. The Glasgow Assembly, however, 
appears to have had some stings of conscience about the violation of 
their ordination vows of obedience, and granted a dispensation to the 
guilty ministers, on the score that the form of the oath was not enjoined 
by law. And the notorious Johnston of Wariston, clerk of the Assem- 
bly, fell upon this Jesuitical exposition, " that the swearer is neither 
bound to the meaning of the prescriber of the oath, nor to his own 
meaning, when he takes the oath, but to the reality of the thing sworn, 
as it shall afterwards be interpreted by the competent judges." Doc- 
trine'something akin to this is often charged upon the Romanists at Pro- 
testant Association meetings. " Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft," 
saith the prophet Samuel. On this principle, perhaps, we may account 
for such a monstrous dogma. What magnifies the sin of the nation in 
1638, is the fact that it was committed by the great ecclesiastical synod 
of the country. It was not of the civil power, not a government per- 
secution, such as subsequently took place in the reign of William of 
Orange, who suffered the angels of the churches to be expelled from 
their thrones, and theirclergy to be rabbled from their livings, because 
their consciences would not permit them to break the oath of allegi- 
ance which they had taken to King James, and swear fealty to him. 
They seem not to have had the same notions of a dispensing power as 
obtained in Glasgow. Notwithstanding this temporal overthrow of the 
Church, and its disestablishment by an act of state tyranny, we are not 
erastian enough to consider that the Church, built upon the foundation 
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cor- 
ner-stone, can, however minished or brought low by oppression, ever be 
robbed of its spiritual character, which God, and not man, hath indel- 
ibly stamped upon it. And though, like Rachel weeping for her 
children, she mourns for those who are departed, she sorrows not with- 
out hope; and annually her prayer is, "Fetch them home, blessed 
Lord, to thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the 
true Israelites, and be made one fold, under one shepherd, Jesus Christ 
our Lord." O that every faithful follower of that same Lord would 
make this his fervent daily prayer ! Then might we" hope indeed to 
behold the building of the old wastes, the raising up the former desola- 



21 



tions, the repairing of the waste cities — the desolations of many gene- 
rations. Come this joyful day will, though we may not live to see it. 
It is not to men, nor the expedients of men, that we are to look for 
this consummation so devoutly-to-be-wished, but to Him, who alone 
can turn the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, "and 
turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the chil- 
dren to the fathers." It is not by strife, and controversy, and angry 
disputations — not by the wisdom of human policy — not by schemes of 
unprincipled legislation — not by popular eloquence or popular excite- 
ment — not by a shuffling expediency — not by a concealment of the 
truth — not by prophesying smooth things: but by unfeigned repent- 
ance for our past sins — " by turning to the Lord with all our hearts, and 
with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, and rending our 
hearts, and not our garments, and turning unto the Lord our God, for 
He is gracious, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, 
and repenteth Him of the evil." When it shall please God to grant 
unto our countrymen true repentance for all the horrible acts perpe- 
trated, under the name of religion and reformation of religion, from the 
days of Wishart downwards — the sacrilege, devastation, rapine, and 
plunder, done at the instigation and under the leading of Knox, with 
his lay assistants, Murray, Morton, and the whole band of robbers of 
the Church, and spoilers of property dedicated to God — the false accu- 
sations of Melville, and the ministers of 1638, against their lawful and 
spiritual superiors — the violence, tyranny, and oppression of 1690; — 
when these are repented of, then may we hope to see the salvation of 
the Lord, but not by unholy commemorations of the sad events of other 
years, and thereby assenting to all the unrighteous deeds of which 
their fathers were guilty. There was something truly melancholy in 
the commemoration made two years ago, in this city, of the rebellion 
of 1638, presided over too by the chief magistrate of the city, and by 
the Moderator of the General Assembly preaching within the Cathe- 
dral itself. It brought fearfully to my recollection our Saviour's awful 
predictions in the gospel of St. Matthew, chap, xxiii., which I refrain 
from transcribing. Let him who readeth reflect upon them. May no si- 
milar accomplishment follow that sad commemoration ; and let us cha- 
ritably hope that they who held it did so not with evil intentions, nor 
from an unmixed concurrence in all the crimes which stain that page of 
our country's annals. The commemoration, happily, was neither a na- 
tional one, nor participated in by the whole nation ; but the Moderator's 
presence gave a sanction of the supreme judicature of the Establish- 
ment, which would have better been omitted. To whatever source 



22 



we ascribe the origin of the succession of ministers now in the posses- 
sion of the parochial cures of Scotland — whether to Melville or to the 
Assembly of 1638 — one thing is certain, that it is condemned by the 
Westminster Confession of Faith, which, first, condemns the unlawful 
assumption of the ministerial office, and, 2dly, affirms that ordination 
is always to be continued in the Church. If by this latter expression 
we are to understand " is to be continued " to apply to the date of the 
approval of the said Confession by the Assembly in 1647, then the 
Establishment has no claim to be called the Church of Christ, hut the 
Church of Westminster : but if to a period anterior to that, namely, 
the beginning of Christianity, and taking this in conjunction with the 
former declaration, " without a lawful calling," — then, in order to un- 
derstand what is meant by a lawful calling, we must refer to the foun- 
tain head, the Bible ; and as this gives us no account of any ordina- 
tions celebrated, but by our blessed Lord and his Apostles, and by Ti- 
mothy and Titus, both of which latter persons were appointed as sole 
ordainers, no mention being made of any presbyters having been joined 
with them in the act of ordination, then truly this lawful ordination, 
always to be continued in the Church, must exactly correspond with the 
original pattern given to us in the Holy Scriptures, and that is, by the 
laying on of hands by an apostle, or all the apostles, as in the case of 
the seven deacons, or by one, as in the ordination by Timothy and 
Titus. And this is the apostolic succession for which we contend, 
and which is implied in the language of the Westminster Confession. 
And we have reason to bless God for this proof of his overruling pro- 
vidence, in compelling men otherwise minded to bear testimony to the 
doctrine of succession, by the laying on of hands from the days of the 
holy apostles. If we pass on from the Scriptures to the year 1638, 
the bishops who then ordained in the Scottish Church were lawful 
ministers, having been lawfully consecrated by bishops, according to the 
Anglican ordinal — " Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work 
of a bishop in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the 
imposition of our hands, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost." And by the same ordinal did they in turn 
ordain priests in the Scottish Church — "Receive the Holy Ghost for 
the office and work of a priest in the Church of God, now committed 
unto thee by the imposition of our hands." It cannot surely be urged, 
that the ministers who disowned and expelled their bishops, and had 
been ordained only to the order of priests, could lawfully assume to 
themselves the Episcopate; for their mission runs thus-^" Take thou 
authority to preach the word of God, and to minister the holy sacra- 



23 



mentsin the congregation where thou shalt be lawfully appointed there- 
unto." But no authority was given to ordain. It is further set forth under 
the head, " touching the power of ordination/' in the same Confession, 
that " ordination is the act of a presbytery" — a bold statement truly. 
" The power of ordering the whole work of ordination is in the whole 
presbytery," Suppose this were a fact warranted by Scripture, as it is 
not, but granting it for argument's sake, who conferred this power on 
the ministers of 1638? Not the bishops; nor the king, because he op- 
posed their proceedings. Neither was it bestowed by a direct revelation 
from Heaven. It was power assumed by the ministers ; it was a 
bold assumption of an office then by divine right appertaining to, and 
which had always appertained to bishops, and not to presbyters, or 
priests, or elders. Be this, however, as it may, it was a power not 
possessed by inheritance, not derived by succession, but by violence 
and false accusation wrested from the hands of those to whom both 
the laws of God and the laws of the State had exclusively committed 
it. An office so obtained cannot, one would think, carry a blessing 
along with it, neither be gifted with the grace of the Holy Spirit. 
There is no novelty, I am aware, in this argument; nor does it peculiarly 
belong to Churchmen, but is the very same presented to the flocks 
of the seven deposed ministers of Strathbogie, in a letter addressed to 
them in name and by appointment of the Presbytery of Strathbogie, 
by David Dewar, Moderator. This document is so singular, and em- 
bodies so fully the doctrine I have been maintaining, that I cannot 
refrain from inserting it here. It contains not only the opinions of the 
minority recognised by the Assembly as the Presbytery, but also of 
the Commission of the Assembly. " By the sentence of the Com- 
mission, the seven ministers are suspended from the office and function 
of the holy ministry; and it is declared, that all acts, ministerial or 
judicial, performed, or attempted to be performed by them, or any of 
them, until reponed, shall be null and void." But the letter shall 
speak for itself: — 

" Dear Brethren, — It has been reported to us, that certain of your number 
have applied for and received baptism to their children, and others the celebra- 
tion of marriage, at the hands of their ministers, notwithstanding the public in- 
timation, which had been previously given, of the sentence of suspension passed 
upon them by the Commission of the General Assembly. As invested with the 
spiritual superintendence of the parishes within the bounds of this Presbytery, 
we feel that we should be chargeable with the neglect of our duty to the Church 
and with unfaithfulness toward you, if we did not affectionately, but solemnly, 
warn you against following such a course. By the sentence of the Commission, 
the seven ministers are suspended from the office and functions of the holy 



24 



ministry ; and it is declared, that all acts, ministerial and judicial, performed, or 
attempted to be performed, by them, or any of them, until reponed, shall be 
'void and null.' They have, therefore, in their present condition no spiritual au- 
thority — no right to administer the ordinances of the Gospel. They have been 
deprived of that right by the Church from which they at first received it : and 
you cannot, therefore, apply to them for these ordinances, without setting at 
nought the authority, and subjecting yourselves to the censures, of that Church. 
The Committee, appointed by the Commission of the General Assembly to co- 
operate with the Presbytery in providing for the preaching of the gospel and 
the dispensation of ordinances in the parishes of the suspended ministers, 
unite with us in earnestly imploring you to reflect what will be the position in 
which you place yourselves and your children, should you follow the example of 
the individuals (we trust they are very few) who have received the form of a di- 
vine ordinance at the hands of those who have no warrant to administer it. 

" We pray that you will take this our affectionate warning in good part, and 
avoid a line of conduct which can be regarded by the Church in no other light 
than as a contempt of her authority, and an unlawful use of the institutions of 
Christ. 

" In name and by appointment of the Presbytery of Strathbogie. 

(Signed) "David Dewar, Moderator." 

What Churchman could use language more decided than this, of the 
nullity of ministerial acts performed by men who have cast off the 
authority of the Church ; yet, coming from that quarter, would it not be 
called popery or bigotry, and an infringement upon civil and religious 
liberty? Greatly indeed do we rejoice to see this symptom of an 
awakening to more catholic principles among those who bear rule in 
ecclesiastical affairs in Scotland, and most devoutly do we pray that 
ere long the men who profess such sound doctrine may be brought to 
reflect on their own disobedience to the bishops of the Scottish Church, 
and seriously to inquire whether the rebellion of their fathers does not 
render null and void their acts, ministerial and judicial also, and further 
to examine whether " they have, in their present condition, any spirit- 
ual authority, any right to administer the ordinances of the gospel." 
In all earnestness and godly sincerity these remarks are made; not to 
rouse a spirit of controversy, not to excite feelings of anger, but to in- 
vite those whom we conscientiously believe to be in separation from 
the spouse of Christ, to ponder them in their hearts, and by fervent 
prayer to seek the direction of the Holy Spirit, who alone, in the 
midst of errors, difficulties, and doubts, is able as he is willing to guide 
the humble inquirer into all truth, remembering the exhortation of St. 
James, "If any of you lack wisdom, (heavenly wisdom,) let him ask 
of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it 
shall be given him ; but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering." 



25 



Scotland has had strife enough, and to spare, and the unhappy feuds 
under the name of the religion of peace have not been so few, that a 
minister of the Establishment should assail the liturgy of the English 
and Scottish Church. Has Dr. Burns not foes enough of his own 
house, that he must needs raise up others in our household of the faith, 
and revive in his own parish the memory of an anti-liturgical warfare, 
and the sad tale of the wretched woman Geddes's sin. Was her outrage 
within the walls of the sanctuary, the house of prayer, the house of 
Almighty God, an action so pure, so peaceable, so lovely, and of such 
good report as even to be named where it was ? 1 think if Dr. Burns 
would read attentively the Book of Common Prayer, comparing it with 
the Holy Scriptures, he would find it so replete with the very words of 
inspiration, that he would bitterly regret ever having spoken lightly of 
it, or set his people the example of thinking scornfully of it. He 
may prefer his extemporary, we our liturgical worship; and when 
our Liturgy is so scriptural, and so free from all error of doctrine, he 
outrht not to have offended his brother on such a point. I shall at- 
tempt no defence of the Liturgy; Mr. Wade has sufficiently answered 
the objections made to it. The Liturgy needs no defence; whoever 
reads it with humility, with holy and devout feelings, and with a 
prayerful heart and a chastened spirit, will not speak evil of it; and 
I am persuaded that no one, who ever used it with these affections, 
ever arose from his knees without experiencing within that peace of 
God which passeth all understanding. Let Dr. Burns make the ex- 
periment, and I am sure that he will add to its beautiful confession, 
a confession of unfeigned grief for having spoken and written against 
its use. I do most heartily concur with Dr. Burns in thinking that it 
ought not to be obtruded upon presbyterian congregations, because 
I esteem it far too holy to be made the mere preface to a sermon, on 
occasions when people are attracted very often by idle curiosity, and 
not to worship God in spirit and in truth. Presbyterians have no 
prayer-books, and could not find the places, if they had; and when 
they ought to worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord their 
Maker., they are sitting inattentive, if not impatient, and it may be 
scoffing at the holy prayers we present unto the throne of grace. 
It would be well if they and we also were ever to bear in 
mind the words of Solomon, " Keep thy foot when thou goest to the 
house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of 
fools : for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy 
mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God : 
for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth, therefore let thy words be 

D 



26 



few." It is the fear lest the people through ignorance and through want 
of holiness should draw near to God with their bodies, while their lips 
and their hearts are far from Him, that I personally have a strong 
objection to intrude our Liturgy upon any congregations unused to it. 
J once did so, and was too much shocked with the irreverence of the 
scene, to desire ever to do so again. It is bad enough to witness in 
our own congregations the absence of that devout, spiritual, and vocal 
prayer becoming penitent sinners in the holy places where the blessed 
Jesus has promised to be present, where two or three are gathered to- 
gether in his name. Let me remind Dr. Burns that Daniel opened 
his window in Babylon, and prayed towards the ruined altar of Jeru- 
salem, because God had placed his name there ; and if it be a supersti- 
tion, we also turn and pray towards our altar, Qva-wurrvgH)?, as St. 
Paul calls it, remembering, as we look toward the east, the glorious 
rising of the Sun of Righteousness, which lighteth every one that 
cometh into the world. It is not in form, but w T ith reverence and faith, 
that the true Catholic prays towards the Holy of Holies, where 
the Lord's body and blood are spiritually eaten and drunk. By 
the carnal-minded man, by him who walketh by sight and not by 
faith, turning towards the east in prayer, and bowing at the name of 
Jesus, may be converted into a form, and the greater the sin. But he 
who, through faith, beholds our great High Priest present in the courts 
of His house, to hear the petitions of his suppliants to bless and to ab- 
solve,is awe-struck with the glorious majesty then, as in a vision, reveal- 
ed to his spirit; and with profound reverence and a lowly heart, when 
he hears pronounced that name, highly exalted and above every name 
with things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, 
with profound reverence and adoration he bows low at the name 
Jesus, And this is the Name of the Lord our God, which we shall 
not take in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who taketh 
His Name in vain. This holy rite the Catholic church has ever ob- 
served; and it is one which no Catholic, who spiritually discerns the 
Lord's body and the Lord's presence in Church, will ever neglect. 
He knows his own sinfulness and God's purity. He remembers that 
he is bought with a price ; therefore he glorifies God in his body, and 
in his spirit, which are God's, 1 Cor. vi. 20. Moreover, every Greek 
scholar knows wgoaxwea; means to prostrate the body on the ground, 
as a dog crouches when he knows that he has offended his master ; and 
so the really sorrowing Christian will deem no prostration of the body 
too abject, in the presence of his heavenly Master, whom he daily 
offends. Wherefore, says St. Paul, " if therefore the whole Church 



27 



be come together in one place— if all prophesy, and there come in one 
that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judg- 
ed of all ; and so falling down on his face, he will w-orship God." 
" rscruv Kri vgoa-arov vgocmwrxrei ra tieu." Such is St. Paul's account of the 
effect of sincere faith and repentance upon the body. So we who, in 
holy worship, both bow and kneel, do so on the sure warrant of the 
Word of God; and they who do so without reverence and godly fear, 
are guilty of profaneness as much as they who neglect it. Does Dr. 
Burns really imagine that all Presbyterians, who have cast off all ex- 
ternal or bodily worship, have thereby become more internally and 
more spiritually holy? Does he think that the listeners to extempore 
("but does not premeditation and study in prayer''' constitute a minis- 
ter's form at least ?) prayer can be prayers also, and this too in spirit 
and in truth ? Suppose, for instance, and the supposition is not vision- 
ary, that the non-intrusion minister makes non-intrusion the subject 
frequently of his prayers in public, does the intrusionist of his congre- 
gation join in his heart with the minister ? Surely not; for he disap- 
proves of non-intrusion : and so when the minister prays for one thing, 
he prays for another, if, indeed, he does pray, which is very question- 
able — and thus in the house of God a schism in prayer occurs, which 
cannot be right. A Liturgy, common to all, prevents this, and puts a 
stop to controversy in prayer, ill becoming those who, whether or not 
they confess it, have erred and strayed like lost sheep. 

Let me also tell Dr. Burns that it is not on the authority of Comber, 
or Bishop Mant, or Dr. Pusey, or Mr Montgomery, that an uninterrupt- 
ed succession is contended for, as essential to the validity of religious or- 
dinances, i. e. the sacraments; but the Church of England, in her Preface 
to the Ordination Service, in her articles and canons, following the de- 
crees of the Holy Church throughout all the world, has ex cathedra 
pronounced them to be essential, and everyone of her priests, minis- 
tering before the altar, professes, with Nice and Constantinople, to be- 
lieve one Catholic and Apostolic Church — not many Protestant deno- 
minations, such as Lutherans, or Calvinists, or any other private sec- 
taries — and they cannot be so unprincipled as to deny in private, what 
they confess in public before God and his holy angels. What does 
Dr. Burns mean by calling "the Church of England a branch of the 
great Lutheran community?" One would think that, in the course of 
his reading, he had discovered that the Anglican Church was purged 
from its errors by Archbishop Cranmer, and the bishops and clergy as- 
sembled in convocation ; that this lawful national synod, exercising 
that right which the Catholic Church always had before the papal 



28 



usurpation took it away, reformed its Service Book, and drew up its 
articles and canons, which, when finished, they presented to the Houses 
of Parliament for their acceptance, and the State received what its 
spiritual rulers conferred upon it. England sent no legates to the Diet 
of Augsburgh, where the fundamental doctrine of consubstantiation was 
made an article of faith — a doctrine equally unscriptural with that of 
transubstantiation, and which Diet took the name of Protestants. As 
the Church of England does not profess the Protestant dogma of consub- 
stantiation, but holds it to be a heretical invention, she has no right 
either to be called Lutheran or Protestant, any more than Cameronian. 
Besides, the word Protestant occurs not in any of her formularies. In 
them she professes to believe in, and she prays for the good estate of the 
Catholic Church ; and as the word Protestant embraces Socinians as 
well as Lutherans and Calvinists, and as the Genevese Calvinists are 
Socinians, and the Lutherans Rationalists and Neologians, she has no 
wish to be recognised as a branch of such a community. The Doctor, 
in a note, says, " Our prayer to the great Head of the Protestant 
Church is, that a better spirit, and more congenial with pure Protes- 
tantism, may be poured on all the members of the Episcopacy." Will 
the Doctor be pleased to explain what " pure Protestantism" is? The 
pure Protestant church of Geneva denies the divinity of God the Son 
—the pure Protestant churches of Germany all but deny the divinity 
of God the Holy Ghost — the pure Protestant church of the Quakers 
has rejected the sacraments — and the pure Protestant church of the 
Socinians or Unitarians denies the divinity of Christ. To which of all 
these sects of pure Protestants the Doctor desires that our spirit may be 
assimilated I cannot tell. I for one do most heartily protest against 
being denominated a Protestant at all, in case it should be expected of 
me to believe all the articles of the Protestant faith, however conflict- 
ing. What a singular document it would be — a pure Protestant creed ! 
Of course it would embrace Neology, Socinianism, Trinitarianism, 
Universal Redemption and Particular Redemption, Arminianism, 
Burgherism and Anti-Burgherism, Jumperism, Quakerism, Shakerism, 
and Consubstantiation ; and why not Transubstantiation ? The stomach 
which can digest all the ingredients which compose a pure Protestant 
creed, would be squeamish indeed, which could not reserve a quiet 
corner for the Tridentine doctrine. But as new creeds are the order 
of the day, what objection can be made to the creed of Pope Pius IV. ? 
It is cotemporary with those of Augsburgh and Geneva ; and who will 
deny that a bishop had as good a right to invent a creed as a monk had ? 
We, however, are quite satisfied with the old creeds which the Catho- 



29 



lie Church has always professed; neither do we desire to be ranked of 
the number of those who have added to the faith, and come under the 
ban of the councils of Nice, Ephesus, and Chalcedon. The council of 
Ephesus, A.D. 438, says, " The holy synod determined, that it should 
not be lawful for any one to set forth, write, or compose, any other 
creed than that which was determined by the Holy Fathers who assem- 
bled at Nice (A.D. 325) in the Holy Ghost ; and that if any shall 
dare to compose any other creed, or adduce or present it to those who 
are willing to be converted to the knowledge of the truth, either from 
heathenism or judaism, or any heresy whatsoever — such persons, if 
bishops, shall be deprived of their Episcopal office — if clergy, of the 
clerical." — Eph.Act. 6. Pius IV. set forth a newcreed, and the Council 
of Trent accepted of it, in addition to that of Xice, and belief of which 
is obligatory upon all who receive the decrees of the Synod of Trent, 
under the pain of anathema. In this creed are many novel and erro- 
neous doctrines made essential terms of communion. Thus the bishop of 
Rome, and all bishops and clergy who then and now have adopted that 
creed, merit that sentence of deprivation pronounced by the HolyFathers, 
assembled in general council at Ephesus, and thus may be questioned 
their right to the title of catholic, not only on account of this addi- 
tion to the faith, but also because of their attempt to force npon the 
church universal, a creed not drawn up by a general council, as was that 
of Xice, but protested against by the Oriental and Anglican churches, 
which still adhere to the Xicene creed, as being an admirable compen- 
dium of the christian faith. The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of 
England, inasmuch as they do not contradict the doctrine of the Xicene 
creed, nor are terms of communion, to the exclusion of other branches 
of the churches of Christ, are not to be esteemed as additions to the faitb. 
If, therefore, the council assembled at Ephesus was Catholic, and its 
decrees universally received, which are not denied, then how can the 
Council of Trent and the Roman Church, since the days of that council, 
have a claim to be called Catholic? Either Ephesus, and the churches 
then and now in obedience to its decrees, or Trent, and the churches 
then and now obeying its decrees, must be the one Catholic, or the 
one heretical : for, as the one is in direct opposition to the other, both 
cannot, one would think, be Catholic. 

We should not object so much to the name Protestant, novel 
as it is, did all who have adopted that appellative hold the one 
and the same faith, and that identical with the faith universally 
received by the early Church of Christ. But why forsake and 
abandon the time-honoured name of Catholic, by which we are 



30 



identified with the blessed apostles — with the sainted martyrs 
Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, Cyprian — with the holy bishops, pres- 
byters, deacons, and laity, who, in various ages, and in various 
lands, walked "worthy of the vocation wherewith they were called, 
with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one 
another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the 
bond of peace ? There is one body and one Spirit, even as they 
are called in one hope of their calling, one Lord, one faith, one 
baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through 
all, and in all.''' To these indeed do we look back as our spiritual an- 
cestry, and through them to Christ, who is the Head of the Church, 
and the Saviour of the body. We dare not esteem Luther, or Calvin, 
or even Cranmer, as the spiritual fathers and founders of our church, 
men of the 16th century after our Lord's resurrection. This would 
indeed be to unchurch ourselves. And no wonder that sects which 
have arisen from men of yesterday should rejoice in the name of Pro- 
testant, reject that of Catholic, and with this also the doctrine of apos- 
tolic succession— perhaps because they are convinced they have no right 
to either. But we know and are assured that we have both ; wherefore 
we do rejoice in both. We say to the Protestants, as Tertullian did 
to the heretics of his day, " Let them show us the original of their 
churches, and give us a catalogue of their bishops, in an exact succes- 
sion, from first to last, whereby it may appear that their first bishop had 
either some apostle, or some apostolical man living in the time of the 
Apostles, for his author or immediate predecessor. For thus it is that 
apostolical churches make their reckoning. The Church of Smyrna 
counts up to Polycarp, ordained by St. John, and so all other churches 
in like manner exhibit their first bishops ordained by the Apostles, by 
whom the apostolic seed was propagated, and conveyed to others." 
Tertul. de prsescrip. chap. 32. 

In our Liturgy, too, we do rejoice, because in comparing it with the 
ancient liturgies extant we rind the same catholic doctrine, and both bear 
testimony against the modern errors and innovations of B.ome. In the 
ancient liturgies prayers are made for the faithful dead — patriarchs, 
prophets, apostles — that they might have rest in the intermediate state. 
In the Roman Liturgy uncatholic and unchristian prayer is offered to 
the dead — the apostles, the blessed Virgin, and other saints. Thus, it 
is by comparing Rome with antiquity that we best can expose its cor- 
ruptions and its novelties — its uncatholicity in faith and practice; and 
for doing this it is that Dr. Pusey, and Mr. Newman, and' other learned 
divines, are branded with the name of Papists, and bigots, and Pusey- 



31 



ites. Whenever people take to the wretched and unchristian-like 
practice of calling names, they show both the badness of their cause, 
and their inability to defend the systems to which they belong. Rail- 
ing and abusive language, it is unnecessary to say, are contrary both 
to the letter and spirit of Christianity, as well as personal violence and 
persecution. God grant that they who indulge in such language, may 
learn, from the passive endurance of those on whom it is heaped, a 
lesson of christian patience ; and as they would not like to be reviled, 
so neither ought they to revile others ; for whatsoever ye would that 
men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them. However loud 
may be the profession of Christianity — however much people may 
vaunt their being the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ — all their pro- 
fessions, all their boastings, are nothing worth, except the same mind 
be in them which was in Christ Jesus ; except men have the Spirit of 
Christ, they are none of his. And if we carry our minds back through 
the history of our country to the period of what is called the Reforma- 
tion, where, amid that universal deluge of strife, that long reign of 
anarchy and confusion, can we fix upon a spot where the heaven-des- 
cended dove could have found rest for the sole of its foot ? Would it 
have lighted amid the train of Knox, when bent on his march of re- 
formation ? Would it have lighted at St. Andrews, where the incense 
which once scented the air, was changed for the black wreaths of 
smoke which curled from the temples of God — where the light of the 
candlestick was expired, and darkness, even darkness that might be felt, 
brooded o'er the Apostolic See ? Would it have stooped o'er the 
fair town of Perth, where the Reformer's sacrilegious hammer demo- 
lished its holy shrines, and religious sacred chaunts and hymns of 
praise were changed for the yells of an infuriated band, crying, Down 
with them, Down with them, even to the ground? Would it have 
found in Dunfermline's noble abbey a sanctuary from the wrath of man? 
Even there the Reformer was toiling in his vocation, and the once peace- 
ful cloister echoed the blasphemer's licentious jests ? Would it have 
winged its flight to Iona's primitive church, where Christianity first was 
cradled, amid the ocean's tempestuous waves, and the madness of ahea- 
then people ? There indeed the light on the altar burned, but the ruined 
fane supplied the fuel. O what a tale would that dove have to tell 
when it returned to the ark in heaven, for on earth the ark was broken 
up, and the wreckers were gathering its spoils ! Such Were the deeds 
in Scotland, enacted at. what men call the glorious Reformation — 
rapine, plunder, incendiarism, sacrilege, the first practical lessons of the 
religion purer than that which the old monks taught ; and the people's 



32 



schoolmaster of this Reformation was John Knox, called a minister of 
God — of that God, too, who once said to Peter, " Put up thy sword 
into its scabbard, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the 
sword." We often hear talk of the dark ages — and dark indeed was 
that age when such awful atrocities were committed under the name 
of a reformation ; and still more dark in this march-of-intellect age, 
when men are actually to be found laudatores te?nporis acti. applaud- 
ing those deeds of darkness, monument-builders, and almost canonisers 
of a man, who, under the name of a reformer of a corrupt religion, 
and a preacher of the gospel of peace, made desolate a smiling land. 
He pulled down the old religion, it is true, and no doubt it was greatly 
transformed from its original righteousness — it were folly to deny it. 
But is to destroy synonymous with reform ? I think no non-intrusion 
minister would think so, were an intrusionist rabble to demolish and 
burn his manse, aud plunder his goods. Yet so fared it with the 
monks, and with many of the secular clergy. Scarcely was this con- 
fusion beginning to jumble into something less of disorder, when all 
became w T orse confounded by the Geneva emissary, Andrew Melville. 
Again the tempest began to howl, and the sand-based fabric of Knox 
was levelled with the ground by the disciple of Calvin. For a time 
this parity-begotten confusion endured, waxing stronger and stronger, 
and trampling even upon the authority of the king; and instead of the 
Pope lording it over an emperor, numbers of ministers, while fulminat- 
ing their anathemas against the thing popery, played in their own 
persons against their anointed sovereign, the minister of God appointed 
to rule over them, that very tyranny which they delighted to con- 
demn. When James, by his accession to the throne of England, at length 
escaped from this religious liberty thraldom, he had compassion upon 
poor Scotland, and sent Bishop to heal its distractions; but the thorns 
and briers of insubordination and rebellion were too numerous, and too 
deep-rooted, to be overcome and eradicated, and though something of 
a reform was effected, the storm once more broke out, and he native 
clergy, aided by some unquiet spirits expelled from Ireland for their 
turbulence, and backed by some disaffected and disappointed ords and 
gentry, attempted, by a sort of ribbon association, to what they called 
reform the abuses of religion and the country ; and from that period 
almost to the present, with short interludes of quiet, like breathings of 
prize-fighters between the rounds when their energies begin to fail, 
Scotland has more or less been convulsed with some (miscalled) reli- 
gious dispute. We have reached the close of one of those lulls, and 
another contest is on the threshold— a conflict not yet of the sword, 



33 



but of processes — a war not against the Church, hut a war within the 
bosom of the Establishment, waged by the party against their brethren 
of the ministry, and against the civil courts. If it be asked why Pres- 
byterianism is such a perturbed spirit that it cannot long remain at 
rest, its father Calvin will supply the reason. " Parity," he said, 
" begetteth confusion." And sure enough much of this lieth at his 
door, for he set the apple of discord a-rolling. 

Often it is said that history is an old almanac ; yet, though the 
chronicle of Scotland's tears is nearly three centuries old, how un- 
willingly and how little is it read ! How many widows and orphans, 
now dwelling in the world of spirits, chronicled their desolation from 
religious strife ? The Church of England, since its reformation, except 
at the hands of Mary the Papist, and the Puritans, Independents, and 
Presbyterians, has suffered no such miseries. Hers has been a peace- 
ful reign. A few degenerate sons, who have forsaken the bosom of 
their holy mother, have pointed their weapons at her breast ; but the 
Bridegroom has not suffered his spouse to be destroyed. We say not 
that she is perfect; some taint of Geneva influence still remains ; but 
there is a dawn of brighter days, and a purer and more catholic spirit 
is spreading among the clergy. Her sanctuaries are becoming more 
numerous, and her daily services more frequent in the country, as well 
as in the cities ; and through the prayers of her faithful shepherds and 
people we hope that the great Shepherd of the sheep will pour down 
upon her more abundant blessings. 

Scotland is yet far behind, and the saddest thing of all is perhaps 
the melancholy fact that the daily sacrifice has ceased. In not one 
church or meeting, except it be among the Romanists, (though I 
know not that it is,) is the morning and evening sacrifice of prayer 
offered. Six days, (nationally I mean,) is the world and the God of 
this world worshipped, and one day alone is dedicated to the service of 
the Lord our God. The Holy Eucharist which the Christians of the 
Scriptures daily enjoyed, is by the Establishment administered only once 
a year in the country, and twice in large towns, and by the church 
monthly, and on the great festivals. Yet is this called a reformed 
country. It is truly a reformation that needeth to be reformed. How 
much do people, instead of looking inward and correcting their own 
errors, vent their indignation against Romish errors, clamouring against 
its wafer- worship and its image-worship, yet silent as to their own 
worldly-mindedness ? No protestant platform denunciations are ever 
hurled against covetousness ; yet St. Paul tells us that covetousness is 
idolatry. Doubtless lectures against protestant idolatry of mammon 

E 



34 



would be unpopular ; but are they not required? Neither are anti- 
schism meetings held ; yet schism is equally a sin, and in this country 
far more dominant than Popery. The day, it is to be hoped, will 
soon come, when men's eyes will be opened as to the reformation de- 
lusion, and they will discover that though it was a good thing to have 
renounced the errors which had obscured the truth in the Church, and 
had produced great corruptions of morals in the country, yet was it 
also requisite to inculcate upon the people pure religion and undefiled, 
in order to justify the pretensions to a reformation. And the dispassion- 
ate reader of this country's history for the last three centuries will 
easily perceive that though Popery, (as it is called,) was then over- 
thrown as a system, yet Christianity, in its original purity, was not 
established in its room ; and the daily chronicles of our national 
crimes, and the paralysis of all discipline, the waywardness and 
disobedience of the people toward their spiritual rulers, present a 
melancholy picture of the condition of a nation which prides itself in 
its reformation. Whatever dispute may be raised as to who represent 
those angels, it cannot be denied that these representatives do exist, 
though it is asserted by the Roman Church that the apostolic office, 
being extraordinary, has no succession. The same cannot be said of 
the angels, for they were not the apostles ; and if we maintain that they 
have successors, can the establishment pretend that they possess this 
order of the ministry of Christ ? If we trace it to its original, it reaches 
no higher than the time of Andrew Melville, and as his system essen- 
tially differed from the old, if in it the order of angels did exist, then the 
Church, for the fifteen preceding centuries must have been deficient in 
that sacred order which God had instituted, and, therefore, the gates of 
hell must have prevailed against the Church of Christ. But as this 
cannot be believed, we must conclude that bishops are the alone succes- 
sors of the angels. Should any Presbyterian deny that bishops are an- 
gels of the churches, and maintain that to a presbytery the office belongs, 
be it so for argument's sake. Do they faithfully discharge the duties re- 
quired by Almighty God at their hands, under the pain of a removal of 
their candlesticks, and try them which say they are apostles, and are 
not, to find if they be liars ? Do they hinder the Jezebels which call 
themselves prophetesses from teaching and seducing the servants of God ? 
Nay,do they not talk most lovingly of their brethren, the evangelical dis- 
senters, or, in other words, gospel schismatics ? What can this mean? 
Is schism now called a non-essential, as Protestants speak, and Ro- 
manists call a venial sin ? Is the violation of the unity of the Church, 
a transgression of the Word of God, to be blotted out by a species of 



35 



protestant indulgence, by a sort of judicial absolution, by which they 
undertake to remit sins which the Holy Spirit by St. Jude hath de- 
clared, they who commit, i. e. who separate themselves, are sensual, 
having not the Spirit? How then, but by a pretension to absolution 
judicial, as the Council of Trent has it, and not declaratory, can they 
dare to declare that to be no sin, and virtually to remit on earth that 
which, being condemned in Scripture, cannot be remitted in heaven ? 
This, among many others, is a striking example of the popery of Pro- 
testantism. But God did declare it incumbent upon the angels of the 
churches to put a stop to dissent, not to suffer schismatics to teach ; 
and if the presbyteries are the successors and representatives of the 
angels, so are they also in duty bound not to speak flattering things of 
dissent or schism, but ex cathedra to pronounce them that do such 
things excommunicated, and cast out of the Church of Christ till they 
repent — that is to say, provided they are assured that they do represent 
the angels of Christ, the stars in the right hand of God. But they dis- 
claim such high pretensions — they deride apostolic succession — they 
proclaim themselves without descent, without spiritual fathers, without 
spiritual mothers ; yet do they sit on the thrones of the angels. They 
profess to have " the keys of the kingdom of heaven, by virtue whereof 
they have power respectively to retain and remit sin, to shut that king- 
dom against the impenitent, both by the word and censures, and to 
open it unto penitent sinners, by the ministry of the gospel, and by ab- 
solution from censures, as occasion shall require." Con. chap. xxx. 
sect. 2. This is no slight claim, if it could be established. Marvel- 
lous it is that they who pretend to it, should nevertheless reject the 
doctrine of apostolic succession : for if not derived to them from the 
Apostles, nor yet by immediate mission from our Lord Jesus Christ, it 
must be from man ; and, therefore, they cannot call themselves minis- 
ters of Christ, but of men — ministers of a human, and not a divine Es- 
tablishment. This is the natural inference to be drawn from the claim 
to the apostolic power of the keys, by persons denying apostolic suc- 
cession ; if, therefore, they are unchurched, they unchurch themselves. 
It won't do thus to trifle with Scripture — to play fast and loose with 
inspiration's words; on the one hand to claim ministerial authority, and 
on the other to reject its divine original, carried down through the lapse 
of ages in an apostolic channel. The stewardship of the mysteries of 
God is not a matter of government, which man may do with as he 
pleases — build up, or pull down, or change. Whatever ordinances the 
Lord God has set up — be they the sacraments, be they orders of the 
priesthood — man cannot but at his peril destroy or disobey either. 



36 



And, as St. Paul says, "if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who 
shall prepare for the hattle ?" Requisite indeed it is that the truth be 
spoken, and boldly spoken, whether the people will hear, or whether 
they will forbear. And though not the horrors of a Roman amphitheatre 
be the reward, but the invasion of religious liberty, popery and pre- 
latic tyranny, and such like ebullitions of clamour, may be the return 
made for an honest and fearless declaration of what I conceive to be the 
truth. If there be any truth in the words of St- Paul, that " whatso- 
ever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that 
we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope " — 
if there be any truth in the awful conclusion of the Book of Revela- 
tion, which I again shall repeat, " For I testify unto every man that 
heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add 
unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written 
in this book : and if any man shall take away from the words of the 
book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book 
of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written 
in this book ;" — if there be any truth in these words, then how can 
any one presume, without fear, to deny a succession of the order of 
the priesthood therein named ? Though I execute not the office of an 
angel in the Church of Christ, but one to which power was given to 
remit and to retain sins, and to declare the whole council of God, 
it is not foreign to my power and authority to declare what has ever 
been believed in the Church of Christ, that bishops are successors of 
the angels of the Apocalypse — successors of their spiritual, power and 
jurisdiction — that with these they were invested by God — that this 
investiture was regardless of any consent or disapproval of the state, 
and therefore obedience to their authority depended upon no human, 
but divine law. In short, that they were not, to use a common* ex- 
pression, angels of an established church, but were planted there by 
Almighty God, for the express purpose of opposing the then established 
religion, which was idolatry; and, therefore, they were angels dejure 
divino, not de jure civili. Exactly similar to these in their position 
are the successors of the angels in Scotland — bishops de jure divino, 
but not de jure civili. The people rose in rebellion against them in 
1689, expelling them from their thrones ; and this crime of the people 
the state ratified and confirmed. But though the bishops were robbed 
of their temporalities, God did not suffer them to be removed ; and 
though they and their successors underwent the most dreadful perse- 
cution, though in 1747 the clergy of Scottish orders were proscribed, 
yet God was with them, and their successors still bear spiritual rule in 



37 



Scotland. If, then, the professed Christians in the cities of the seven 
Asiatic churches, whether the faithful or heretics, were by God re- 
quired to be obedient to the angels, who were not by human law es- 
tablished, are not the people now in Scotland, by the same rule and 
by the same divine law, be they the faithful or be they dissenters, es- 
tablished (by law I mean) or non-established, equally bound in obe- 
dience to their bishops? If the present Establishment rests its claim 
to be the Church of Scotland, by virtue of its establishment, then I 
would recommend Dr. Burns and others, before they cast the stone of 
Erastianism against the Church of England, to consider, first, whether 
they themselves are without the taint of Erastianism. This is a subject 
not to be rejected, because it is startling, and to many novel and un- 
heard of. Schism has so long rioted, without let or hinderance, in this 
unhappy land ; its inhabitants have been so familiar with the sight, 
that to call it a sin will, by many, be deemed an invasion of religious 
liberty. I trust, however, that there are numbers of sober-minded per- 
sons, even among the Presbyterians, whose prayers and alms, like those 
of the devout- Cornelius, go up as a memorial before God, and who will 
give a patient consideration to what is here set down. To such the 
violence and agitation by which Presbyterianism has ever forced itself 
into power, and the continuance of that agitation, together with the 
political character which dissent has now assumed, will give birth to 
inquiry as to the divine character of the system. And why should it 
be called illiberal to invite to this inquiry ? What man, were a friend 
to tell him that the food he was about to eat was unwholesome, would, 
instead of thanks, break out into railing and abusive language for 
the well-meant caution ? And is it not equally ungenerous to make 
the same return to those who, being fully persuaded in their own minds, 
honestly endeavour to prove the unwholesomeness and wickedness of 
the present religious position of Scotland— and not only so, but also 
affectionately to entreat those who have been sometime disobedient, 
now to seek, by obedience to the angels, reconciliation with the one 
Catholic and Apostolic Church, of which the Holy Ghost hath made 
them overseers? Let me remind them, that as a husband is the head of 
the wife, so is Christ the Head of the Church ; — and He is the Saviour 
of the body. So St. Paul says, Eph. v. 23 : and also in the remainder 
of the same chapter, by showing the sacramental union between'Xhrist 
and the Church, he clearly proves that the Church of Christ is one, 
that she is the spouse of which He is the bridegroom. Now, He is 
not the husband of many, but of one spouse. And as this is true, it is 
evident that not every sect, but only one society, can be that spouse, 



38 



that Church ; and as the body has many members, so is the Church of 
Christ composed of many branches, as the same Apostle writeth to the 
Corinthians — " For as the body is one, and hath many members, and 
all the members of that one body being many are one body : so also is 
Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether 
we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been 
all made to drink into one Spirit, f or the body is not one member, but 
many." — 1 Cor. xii. 13, 14, 15; and, verse 25, he says, "that there 
should be no schism in the body." And thus the Church of Christ, 
which is one body, is made up of many members in various parts of the 
world; and if we desire a scripture test, by which to try whether 
these members are truly members of the Church of Christ, St. Luke 
supplies it — "And they that were baptized, continued stedfastly in 
the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and 
in prayer." — Acts ii. 41, 42. There must be the sacraments, prayer, 
and doctrine, as well as fellowship of the Apostles ; where either is 
wanting, there a true branch of the Church of Christ cannot be. We 
have the fellowship, but if we have not the doctrine, we cannot be a 
true member; and by a parity of reasoning, if the Scottish Establish- 
ment, or any other sect, have the doctrine, and is without the fellow- 
ship, neither can they be true members of the Church of Christ. As 
we have the fellowship, so have we reason to thank God that not even 
our enemies can charge us with holding false doctrine. By this union 
of both, and with the sacraments rightly and duly administered accord- 
ing to God's holy ordinance, we know, and are persuaded, that ours is 
truly a branch of the one Church of Christ. 

To those who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth I 
address myself, for I cannot help being persuaded that they must feel 
that the many schisms in the body are unholy and unchristian, and 
that upon no principle of Scripture can they be defended. To the poli- 
tical Dissenters, or to those who uphold the present system solely because 
it is an Establishment, without any reference to whom it owes its 
establishment, 1 fear it is in vain to appeal : but to those whom the 
accident of birth has made Dissenters, and are not wedded to their 
systems, but from want of reflection are in dissent, I do appeal, 
and that not without hope that they will, in good earnestness, set 
themselves to inquire whether these things be so. And as no argument, 
however good, not even that contained in the letter of Holy Scripture, 
can alone convince men of their errors, and bring them into the way of 
truth ; so, in this search for the Church of Christ, no one who trusts chief- 
ly or solely to his powers of discernment, will ever arrive at it, without 



39 



the grace of God, and the teaching of the Holy Spirit. " Paul may plant, 
and Apollos may water, but God alone giveth the increase." Where- 
fore, it is most needful that whoever would know what truth is, should, 
while he searcheth the Scriptures for it, do so in humility, and as the 
holy Psalmist did, " refrain his soul, and keep it low, like as a child 
that is weaned from his mother." If, with this child-like simplicity, 
he casteth his care upon God, beseeching Him with prayer and fasting 
to direct him aright, it cannot fail that he will be led to the Church of 
the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, and that God who 
sent Philip to open the mysteries of the kingdom of God to the min- 
ister of the Ethiopian queen, will also direct him to some minister of 
Christ, for further instruction. It is frequently said, that the present 
dissensions of the Establishment are sending men into the Church. 
This, I confess, is to me a matter of fear, rather than joy ; perhaps it 
is wrong that it should be so. But I do not think that caprice or 
dissatisfaction with the conduct of either party in the Establishment 
are proper motives for quitting it ; neither do I think that they who 
seek to be reconciled to the Church, and to be received into her bo- 
som, should be admitted into the enjoyment of all her privileges, with- 
out instruction and preparation. They ought to be told that it is indeed 
a privilege to be received into the holy Catholic Church, that they 
have been in schism, and that of this they ought to repent. If schism be a 
sin, (and who can doubt it ?) it must be repented of, as well as any other 
sin; for without repentance I know not how pardon is to be obtained, 
I cannot, on this ground, rejoice with those who hope to gain numeri- 
cal strength by dissension. I would rather see the Church strong in 
holiness, stedfast in the faith, and fruitful in good works, than like the 
Church of Laodicea, lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, and saying with 
it, " I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," 
and, alas ! knowing not that it is wretched, and miserable, and poor, 
and blind, and naked. 

Mere nominal Churchmen do not adorn the Church of Christ, The 
kingdom of Christ is a spiritual, not a temporal kingdom, and they that 
are Christ's must crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts. 
Wherefore it is that I would wish to see such a godly discipline re- 
stored, that none should be admitted within the pale of the Catholic 
Church, save such as manifest repentance, not only for their sin of 
schism, but also for all former sins ; for though schism be essentially 
sin, it is not the only sin, nor more heinous than any other; "for 
whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he 
is guilty of all," saith St. James. 



40 



What a favourable opportunity is there now for the Scottish bishops 
to present themselves before the world in all the glory of the angels of 
the Church of Christ, Without rank, without wealth, these two 
baits which commonly attract the respect of worldly men, possessing, 
as they do, the love of their flocks, their holy and exalted office would 
obtain greater reverence from them that are without, were they to 
enjoin their clergy not to admit any to communion with the Church, ex- 
cept those who intended to lead a new life, following the commandments 
of God, and walking from henceforth in his holy ways. Were this strict- 
ly attended to, then the Church would not be a sort of house of refuge for 
those who take umbrage at the conduct of their ministers : nor for those 
who may esteem it a more fashionable religion ; nor for those whom 
a love of novelty impels to seek for change, where the ritual is of a 
more imposing character than Presbyterian ism supplies ; but it would 
be (though not in its fullest extent) a glorious church, not having 
spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy, and without blemish. 
It would then be to all who labour and are heavy laden, an ark of 
safety, purity, and peace from the snares, the corruptions, the turbulence 
of sinful men. Then the doctrine of the apostolic succession would be 
no stumblingblock for the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the 
mysteries of God appearing clothed in holiness, instead of earthly 
pomp, arrayed in the really sacerdotal surplice, fine linen, clean and 
white, (for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints ;) in place of 
worldly honours, rank, opulence, or talent, then might we really hope 
that God would add to the Church daily such as should be saved ; and 
then would be brought to pass the saying that was written to the an- 
gel of the Church of Philadelphia, " I know thy works : behold I 
have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou 
hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my 
name. Behold I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which 
say they are Jews, and are not. Behold I will make them to come 
and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. 
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience." It is not to man, 
nor to the power of man, whether of the state, or of the people, but to 
Him who holdeth the stars in his right hand, to whom we must look 
for the restoration of His Church, and in whom alone we must put 
our trust. The Lord our God, who brought the children out of the 
land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage, He it is who will re- 
store again the kingdom to Israel, " for He is the God that maketh 
men to be of one mind in an house, and bringeth the prisoners out of 
captivity." Again saith the inspired Psalmist, (i The Lord bringeth 



41 



the counsel of the heathen to nought ; he maketh the devices of the 
people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the 
thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose 
God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his inheri- 
tance." Ps. xxxiii. 10— 12. These and multitudes of other passages of 
Holy Writ are enough to satisfy any but a professed sceptic, that it is 
the Lord alone who conferreth blessings upon the children of men, upon 
the unthankful too, as well as the thankful. Dr. Burns says, " the 
peculiarities... of Episcopacy are not indifferent to the Presbyterian 
people of Scotland. Episcopacy never was a favourite with them." — Lec- 
p. 7. Was the message, 1 would ask the Doctor, which the seventy 
disciples were commanded by our blessed Lord to deliver to the cities 
and places whither he sent them, a favourite with the inhabitants 
thereof? Were the peculiarities of the gospel not indifferent to them ? 
Did God our Saviour, when He sent His ambassadors before Him, 
consult the will and inclinations of the people ? I trow not. Did He 
hold them excused for rejecting His message, making its acceptance 
optional with them? His sentence was, "woe unto thee, Chorazin ! 
woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in 
Tyre and Sidon which have been done in you, they had a great while 
ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it shall be more 
tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you." Man's 
will was then counted a small thing in God's scheme. He sent whom 
he pleased, and whoever rejected his appointed messengers, did so at 
their peril. I fear that at the last day what men call religious liberty 
will prove a sad delusion, and the likings or dislikings of the people, 
in the matter of God's most holy religion, weigh lightly in the scales of 
God's Almighty justice. If this be true, and I know not how the con- 
trary can be proved, then is it indeed necessary that the people know 
the credentials of those who come to them in the name of Christ, that 
it is not a thing indifferent who their teachers are; and if it indeed be 
proved that they have come out from God, that their appointment is di- 
vine, and not human, they may not by any means cast them off. The 
Holy Ghost, speaking by St. John, saith, " Believe not every spirit, 
but try the spirits whether they are of God : because many false pro- 
phets are gone out into the world." — 1 John iv. 1. The prophets 
whom our Lord sent forth to preach the gospel were commanded to 
say, " Peace be to this house " — their message was one of peace, 
and quietness, and love : but Knox and Melville, whom men call re- 
formers, were armed not with peace, but with destruction, vio- 
lence, and war. The prophets or preachers of 1638 and 1639, and that 

F 



42 



period, were all men of like passions ; neither miracles, nor prayers, 
nor gentleness, nor meekness, nor affectionate persuasion, carried they 
into the cities and places whither they went. In their train followed 
nobles and gentry, with their vassals in arms, and their words were 
terror, not peace; yet religious liberty was the cloak of their licenti- 
ousness. If we try those spirits by the gospel test, and by the meekness 
and gentleness of Christ, they will be found light in the balance. 

Dr. Burns seems to object to a passage which, he says, is in the Ox- 
ford Tracts, though he says not which, " Why should we talk so much 
of an Establishment, and so little of an Apostolical succession ?" And 
why, I would ask, should we do so ? The temporal establishment, or 
the endowment of a religious society, is surely a work of man, and to 
prefer it to God's Church, is what many will call Erastianism. Does 
Dr. Burns not perceive that the great stress laid upon an Establish- 
ment, may ultimately lead to an infidel leaning upon the arm of flesh, 
and not on the arm of God? Surely the spirit engendered by the 
compulsory assessments for religious purposes, is of a less holy charac- 
ter than that which results from the free-will offering, the voluntary 
dedication of a part of our substance to God and His Church, in grati- 
tude and thankfulness to our heavenly Benefactor, for having bestowed 
Kis blessings upon us. How truly is the Spirit of Christ manifested 
by them that are His, when they recognise in every poor, and desti- 
tute, and ignorant Christian, a member of Christ's holy body, of His 
flesh and His bones, and through love to Him who is the head of the 
body, freely, and for His sake, bestowing a portion of their goods, as 
God has prospered them, to relieve the spiritual and the bodily wants 
of their brethren. An Establishment freezes up much of this christian 
feeling, this faith proved by works. They know better what is meant 
by " it is more blessed to give than to receive," who personally give 
relief to a deserving object of charity, than they do who give perhaps 
a smaller sum of money to a collector of poor rates, though the benefit 
to the poor be the same. But as he who bestows an alms upon an 
afflicted member of Christ, for His sake, dees it unto Christ, the bles- 
sing of God is given in return, and that blessing is inward joy. 

Thus apostolical succession, which is naturally connected with the 
true Church, and this with our membership with Christ, and with one 
another, will be found, upon closer investigation, to have a greater in- 
fluence over our lives and conversation, and to be productive of more 
real happiness than appears at first sight. It is indeed in many ways 
a golden chain, which links us with Christ, and conducts to us that 
peace of God which passeth all understanding. I would not that any 



43 



should think we are hostile to an Establishment. All I object to is, 
that an undue preference should be given to an Establishment over the 
Church — that an Establishment should hold such a high place in pub- 
lic estimation, as to produce the belief that Christianity cannot be 
propagated without it. God alone is the converter of souls, and the 
means He has appointed for this end are the prayers and sacraments 
of His Church, and the Holy Scriptures. "The effectual fervent 
prayer of a righteous man availeth much." And as Elias' prayer dried 
up the fountains of heaven, and opened them again, and the heaven 
gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit; so were there now 
many Elias's, were the prayers of the Church made without ceasing 
unto God, "He would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, 
and the hearts of the children to the fathers, and the disobedient to the 
wisdom of the just." Had this spirit been in Knox, then would he 
justly have merited the name of a reformer. " Ye know not what 
manner of spirit ye are of/' answered the blessed Jesus, when the dis- 
ciples James and John would have had Him call down fire from 
heaven to consume a village of Samaria; "for the Son of man is not 
come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." He who would be a 
reformer indeed, must follow the footsteps of the Son of man ; and 
knowing, like St. Paul, the terror of the Lord, persuade men, and 
compel them, not by violence, but by gentleness, to embrace a life of 
holy religion ; " in all things shewing a pattern of good works ; in 
doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that 
cannot be condemned ; that he that is of the contrary part may be 
ashamed, having no evil thing to say of him " — Tit. ii. 7, 8. Whoever 
thus, following the example and the precepts of our Lord and his 
apostles, presents himself as a preacher of righteousness, we may be- 
lieve, from these marks of an apostle, that he is a reformer, and that 
God is with him. 

In conclusion, I will add a few words of friendly caution to them 
who are members of the Holy Catholic Church. Let me remind them 
that it is not enough to be Catholics in name, but that their catholi- 
city, like the seamless coat of Christ, must be all of a piece from the 
top to the bottom. That though their faith be built upon the founda- 
tion of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief 
corner-stone, yet must they be built up an holy temple meet for the 
Spirit of God to dwell in ; as members of Christ, holy as He is holy ; 
as children of God, honouring their Father which is in heaven, and 
their mother, which is His spouse, the Church, fearing God and obey- 
ing his commandments; as inheritors of the kingdom of heaven, "deny- 
ing ungodliness and worldly lusts, living soberly, righteously, and 



44 



godly in this present world ; looking for that blessed hope, and the 
glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, 
who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, 
and purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works ; 
putting on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of 
mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffer- 
ing ; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any 
man have a quarrel against any ; even as Christ forgave you, so do 
ye." And knowing how much the flesh warreth against the spirit, 
and the spirit against the flesh, and that these are contrary the one to 
the other, by self-denial, prayer, and fasting, mortifying the flesh, cru- 
cifying it with its affections and lusts, and bringing it into subjection 
to the Spirit, the true Catholic must be clothed with righteousness, 
and on his vesture must be written, Holiness to the Lord ; " for 
without holiness no man shall see the Lord." This is in very deed the 
true " badge of Episcopacy," and with all the graces of the christian 
character must the high Churchman be adorned. Not to know Episco- 
pacy merely, but to practise it, is the bounden duty of every faithful son 
of Holy Mother Church ; and whoever would seek to enter within her 
pale, let him thus think of Episcopacy. Let him esteem it not as an 
establishment, not as a religious denomination, but as the spouse of 
Christ — the Bride of the Lamb, without blemish and without spot — of 
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. Let him 
well consider, before he comes out from the sect to which he belongs, 
and joineth himself unto the household of faith, that, with the sin of 
schism, he should "renounce the devil and all his works; the vain pomp 
and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the 
carnal desires of the flesh, so that he will not follow, nor be led by 
them ; that he must believe all the articles of the christian faith, and 
that he must obediently keep God's holy will and commandments, 
and walk in the same all the days of his life." These are the credenda 
and agenda of the faith and practice of a Catholic Christian. And let 
him know, whether he be the highest Peer of the realm, or the hum- 
blest of its people, that he conferreth no honour upon the Church by 
entering into it ; but that the Church conferreth high privilege upon 
him, when she admits him to her font and altar. The inspired 
monarch of Israel said, "I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of 
my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." And thus let 
him think who joineth himself unto The Church. " The Spirit and the 
Bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come,- and let him that 
is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the waters of life 
freely." This ever should be the language of the Church to all who 



45 



have erred and strayed like lost sheep ; and O that she, following the ex- 
ample of holy Ambrose, of Milan, would withstand the admission of the 
wicked into her one fold, till they repented of their sins, and humbled 
themselves in the sight of God and man. Alas ! how much evil has 
followed upon the decay of primitive discipline. From lack of this, un- 
godly men, having no fear of punishment before their eyes, no penance 
to perform, forget repentance, having no dread of excommunication, 
fall into the fatal delusion, that as their sins do not appear to be retain- 
ed on earth, therefore they are not retained in heaven. But whether 
or not the Vicars of Christ on earth administer ghostly censures, in the' 
records of heaven the handwriting is against them, and their names 
will be blotted out of the Book of Life, except they repent. 

The extinction of discipline has permitted these tares to attain such 
a luxuriant growth, that to attempt now to root them out seems almost 
a hopeless task. Here and there an individual minister, either in the 
Church or out of it, may rebuke or reject from communion one who 
walketh disorderly, but the public and authoritative excommunication 
has ceased, except in very extraordinary cases, and them whom a 
church court censures the people do not mark and avoid, do not treat 
as heathen men and publicans; wherefore, they are rather encouraged 
in their sins than shamed out of them, and seek not with prayers and 
supplications, and strong crying and tears, to receive absolution, and again 
to be admitted into the communion of the faithful. When thus the 
pure gold hath become dim, and the vineyard of the Lord an unweed- 
ed garden, things rank and gross in nature possessing it, one may well 
be pardoned refusing to acknowledge it as a Reformed Church. The 
purity and reformation of the Church must not be confined within the 
pages of its articles of faith, but exhibited in the lives of its members. 
Their light ought so to shine before men, that they may see their good 
works, and glorify their Father which is in heaven ; and this will never 
come to pass, till a more wholesome discipline is restored, till fear of 
man is changed for the fear of God, and till the rules for the well- 
ordering of the Church, as laid down in the canon of Holy Scripture, 
are strictly attended to, and carried into effect — till the spiritual estate is 
emancipated from the fetters of civil domination, and the censures and 
excommunications of its governors be not set aside and annulled by the 
decrees of Cesar. But this must not be attempted to be effected by 
tumult and popular excitement, but by tarrying the Lord's leisure, by 
enduring and not by resisting the evil, and by earnest prayer to Al- 
mighty God to work out deliverance for his Church. Let us put our 
trust in the Lord our God, and He will bring it to pass. 



APPENDIX, 



The following is the Act of Dispensation of the Oaths, made by the 
inferior clergy, to their bishops, passed by the General Assembly of 1638. 

Session 13, Dec. 5, 1638. 

Against the unlawful oaths of Intrants — " The six Assemblies im- 
mediately preceding, for most just and weightie reasons, above specified, 
being found to be unlawful, and null from the beginning : The Assembly 
declareth the oaths and subscriptions, exacted by the prelates of intrants 
to the ministerie, all this time by past, (as without any pretext of warrant 
from the kirk, so for obedience of the acts of these null Assemblies, and 
contrare to the antient and laudable constitutions of this kirk, which 
never have been, nor can be lawfully repealed, but must stand in force,) 
to be unlawful!, and no way obligatorie ; and, in like manner, declareth 
that the power of Presbyteries, and of Provinciall and Generall Assemblies, 
hath been unjustly suppressed, but never lawfully abrogate, and therefore 
that it hath been most lawfull unto them, notwithstanding any point un- 
justly objected by the prelats to the contrarie, to admit, suspend, or 
deprive ministers, respective within their bounds, upon relevant complaints, 
sufficiently proven to choose their own moderators, and to execute all the 
parts of ecclesiasticall jurisdiction, according to their own limits appointed 
them by the kirk." 

This" act of the General Assembly is not without precedent, as will 
appear from a decree of the 3d Council, held in the Lateran palace, at 
Rome, a.d., 1179, it was summoned chiefly for the suppression of heresy, 
and the doctrine broached was, that faith, or even oaths, were not to be 
observed, if the good of the Church was supposed to require their violation. 
The cases are not exactly in point, but the principle as to the observance 
or non-observance of oaths, is quite the same. 

Lateran 3, a.d. 1179. Canon 16. 

" Nor let our decree be impeded, if perchance some one shall say, that 
he is bound by an oath to observe the customs of his church. For those are 
not to be called oaths, but rather perjuries, which are contrary to the 
good of the Church, and the appointments of the holy fathers." 

How frequently do we find that they who make most clamour about 
liberty, religious or civil, are often the most intolerant. The following 
act of the same notable Assembly, against the liberty of the press, is a 
pretty fair specimen of the kind. 

Act, Session 26, Dec 20, 1638. 

" The Assembly unanimously, by virtue of their ecclesiastical authority, 
dischargeth and inhibiteth all printers within this kingdom, to print any 



47 



act of the former Assemblies, any of the acts or proceedings of this 
Assembly, any confession of faith, any protestations, any reasons pro or 
contra, anent the present divisions and controversies of this time, or any 
other treatise whatsoever, which may concern the kirk of Scotland, or 
God's cause in hand, without warrants, subscribed by Mr. Archibald 
Johnstone, as clerk to the Assembly, and advocate for the kirk; or to 
reprint, without his warrand, any acts or treaties foresaid, which he 
hath caused any other to print, under the paine of ecclesiasticall censures, 
to be execute against the transgressors, by the several presbyteries, and, 
in case of their refusal, by the several commissioners from this Assembly; 
whereunto also we are confident the honourable Judges of this land will 
contribute their civill authority. And this to be intimate publickly in 
pulpit, with the other general acts of this Assembly." 

The 5th Council, held in the Lateran at Rome, issued a decree so 
similar in spirit to this, that it probably was the type of the General Assem- 
bly's act of 1638. 

Lateran 5, a.d., 1516. Session 16. 

" With the approbation of this sacred council, we decree and ordain, that, 
henceforth, in all future times, as well in our own city as in all other 
states and dioceses whatsoever, no person presume to print, or cause to be 
printed, any book or any writing whatsoever, unless they be first accurately 
examined ; if in our city, by our vicar and master of the palace ; but in 
other states or dioceses by the bishop, or some other, deputed by the 
bishop for that purpose, and be approved by subscription under their own 
hands, to be given gratuitously, and without delay, on pain of excommuni- 
cation. But if any one shall presume to do otherwise, besides the loss of 
the printed books, and public bnrning, and the payment of an hundred 
ducats, (without hope of remission) to the press of the prince of the apostles 
in Rome, and the suspension of his exercise of printing for a whole year, 
let him be bound with the sentence of excommunication." 

Surely the Council of Rome must have had a legate at the General 
Assembly when this act was framed, so much does it breathe the spirit of 
the Vatican. 

There may be another reason of this exceeding aversion to free inquiry 
on the part of the Assembly, as well as of the Lateran fathers, viz. : — 
" Every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the 
light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh 
to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought 
in God." — John iii. 20 — 21. This may not be a pleasant solution of the 
difficulty ; but why, if the Assembly had felt perfectly satisfied as to the 
righteousness of its conduct, did it attempt to stifle inquiry ? Thus has 
it ever been with those who have clamoured so much about " injured 
rights of civil and religious freedom;" their practice, an inquisitorial 
coercion of their opponents, and an unbridled freedom in their own 
conduct. 

If Dr. Burns will examine Lightfoot, he may learn that the Jews had 
both a temple and synagogue ritual, and this he proves from the Old and 
New Testaments. As for " the Liturgies of St. Peter, St. Mark,|and St. 
James, which Episcopalians once boasted of, they have long been acknow- 
ledged by all parties to be palpable forgeries." — Note, p. 9. 

This is a sweeping sentence. Who the " all parties" may be I am at 
a loss to know, who do believe them to be forgeries. Very possibly Dr. 
Burns may honestly hold this belief, and many others with him. Not so 
Thomasius, Muratori, Renaudot, and the learned Palmer of Oxford ; be- 



48 



sides multitudes of English and Scottish divines, past and present, who 
have adorned the Church of Christ by their profound learning, as well as 
exemplary piety. St. Chrysostom expressly says, ' £ The whole city met 
together, and with one common voice, ry ^S, noivn (pavy, made their 
Litany, or supplications to God." — Horn. 15. Various other allusions are 
made throughout his works to the liturgy then in use. I would recom- 
mend the "Member of Dr. Burns's young men's class " to look a little 
more acutely into the Book of Common Prayer, and he will see the fol- 
lowing forms of praise prescribed, viz., " Doxologies great and small, 
Venite, Te Deum, Benedicite, Benedictus, Jubilate, Magnificat, Cantate, 
Nunc Dimittis, Deus Misereatur, besides the Psalms for the day, Metrical 
Psalms and Hymns." These we are in the habit of considering as forms of 
praise. What the Doctor's young man may understand by forms of praise 
I know not. Perhaps Dr. Burns can inform me why Presbyterians, who 
are so fond of praying extempore, should not also sing extempore ; and 
why, if the people are permitted to sing praises to God, they are depriv- 
ed of the privilege of praying to God ? Might not the minister or the 
precentor sing in the name of the congregation, as well as pray in their 
name ? There is an old saying that they who live in glass-houses should 
be very cautious of casting stones. 

The Directory for public worship declares, " that all the canonical 
books of the Old and New Testament shall be publicly read in the vulgar 
tongue ; how large a portion shall be read at once, is left to the wisdom 
of the minister ; but it is convenient that ordinarily one chapter out of 
each Testament be read at every meeting." Now it is a notorious fact, that 
this injunction is neither universally nor generally obeyed, and with all the 
vain boast about the presbyterian being a scriptural Church, there is ac- 
tually less of the Word of God read in its Sunday Service, than in the 
Roman, and that sermons, or the traditions of men, occupy a more pro- 
minent place. Not inapplicable are the words of our Lord, " In vain do 
they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. In 
the same Directory I read under the head, " Concerning Public Solemn 
Fasting," that " a religious fast requires total abstinence from all food, 
(unless bodily weakness do manifestly disable from holding out till the fast 
be ended, in which case somewhat may be taken, yet very sparingly to 
support nature when ready to faint.) Is this obeyed by presbyterian 
ministers before their communion and ordinations ? Do the people rigor- 
ously observe this fasting ? I fear that they, as well as Churchmen, sadly 
neglect this solemn obligation enjoined by their ecclesiastical and spiritual 
rulers, upon the express warrant of Holy Scripture, for our blessed Re- 
deemer both fasted himself and enjoined it coupled with prayer. But fast- 
ing and mortification of the flesh are sadly out of favour with us reformed 
Christians. It is certainly far from congenial with "pure Protestantism" 
and Dr. Burns won't call that Popish which the Westminster Confession en- 
joins, though Papists do fast after their fashion, and so also do good Catho- 
lics. The spirit of pure Protestantism seems to be, that every one should 
do that which is right in his own eyes ; whether christian-like or not is 
another question. 

END Or PART FIRST. 



Shortly will be Published, Part If., being an Answer to Dr. Burns's Reply 

to Mr. Wade. 



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